Take A Sad Song (And Make It Better)
by SinisterApollo
Summary: (Formerly Metaphorical Leap) Ever since Ichigo left to fight otherworldly anomalies steadfast on wiping entire races (again), Keigo has turned into Fate's personal punching bag. Or Ikakku and Yumichika's, because they are the ones to drop a POW Tier Harribel on his lap. It doesn't help when a hot-headed blue-haired Espada tags along. Good thing Keigo's a No-Questions guy. Mostly.
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**

* * *

><p>It was dark, around 2 am? 3? Keigo didn't know. All he knew was that it was way too early for this shit, and that he might have to empty his father's alcohol cabinet sooner than he'd expected, legality be damned. Just what the <em>hell<em> was Kurosaki thinking?

Yeah, it was _Kurosaki_ now; Keigo refused to acknowledge the carrot top as his friend at the moment, despite the lack of his actual presence in this situation. In fact, ever since that long haired alienated bastard hijacked his town and almost killed his friends, Keigo concluded that every unnatural occurrence in Karakura lead to Ichigo and his stupid black shinigami robes, whether he was actually there or not. It took Keigo and his friends seventeen months to recuperate and all of that seemed to be taken away from them by that knock on the door he'd received at the brink of dawn.

His parents were away again, so that was a thing less to worry about. Mizuho was still asleep, far too tired from President work and University applications and _thank God f_or that, or else she would have kicked him into next year for such an unnecessary turn of events (because apparently everything was Keigo's fault).

Unnecessary indeed, because what displayed itself in front of the Asano residence were none other than two extremely familiar shinigami and a bundle covered in a red blanket. Both men looked like they had seen better days, in fact, they looked utterly horrifying in Keigo's opinion and the teenager wondered just what Ichigo had gotten into this time.

The strawberry-head hadn't shown up at school for a long time now. Far too long for Keigo to even keep count, so he stopped worrying. Although that may be a lie, he didn't stop _worrying_ exactly, simply _gave up_. Ever since some tall, dark and flowers with an eye-patch (who called himself 'Captain Commander'. Yeah right.) told him, Mizuiro and Tatsuki that their carrot-top idiot won't be coming back, Keigo just... decided to let go. Ichigo was a tough kid. He made it the last time, he'll come back soon. That was what Keigo had been thinking throughout his absence, but began to question the confidence he had in the shinigami... hollow..._ whatever_ Ichigo was now, as soon as he saw the weary faces of Madarame and Yumichika.

"What is it now?" he complained.

"Let us in and we'll explain." Ikkaku's voice sounded gruff and urgent, but Keigo was having none of it. Not this time.

"You actually had the courtesy to ring the doorbell this time? Should have used the window... I mean I can live without having to wake up at three in the freaking morning to entertain _your_ sorry asses." The teenager yawned as he said this, not really caring what spurt out of his mouth. They were way past the freeloading-frenemy business. Keigo was tired.

"Just let us in. It's urgent." The 3rd seat didn't argue, and sounded almost pleading. Keigo raised an eyebrow and his focus shifted to the bald-head to Yumichika and then to the bundle in their hands. He pointed to the red cover.

"Tell me what's in that first."

"Keigo-"

"No, I'm sick of you guys barging into my life like it's your own! I need an explanation _right fucking now,_ at my doorstep or so _help me_ I will kick your butts to hell and back, shinigami or not-"

"_Please_." That stopped the brunette from his frustrated rant and stare at the duo. Ikkaku never pleaded. Well, Keigo hadn't seen him do so at least. Eleventh Squad Pride and Stupidity and all that jazz. Beside him, Yumichika said nothing, just kept his gaze planted to the floor.

Sighing in defeat, Keigo Asano carefully opened the door while trying not to make a sound and ushered the two of them in.


	2. Chapter 01

**Song Inspiration: Hey Brother - Avicii**

**Chapter 01: Brothers In Arms**

* * *

><p><strong><em>18 months ago.<em>**

_The city was bustling with such busy force, such busy energy, that Keigo could only stare. His chocolate brown eyes widened, making the little specks of gold and olive in his irises slightly more prominent in the strong rays of the scorching sun as they wandered over the olympian sized buildings. The sky-scrapers touched the clouds, from what the teenager could see, making him feel smaller than he already was. His head turned from one direction to another at such alarming speed, Keigo thought he might break his neck; but_ Tokyo city_ was just so_ happening_ and so full of life that it was hard to not be awestruck._

_Where had this city been all his life?_

_Oh right, it had _always_ been there. It was Karakura that no one knew about. He was the boy from the suburbs after all._

_It was broad daylight, naturally, or else Keigo would have been a full-blown idiot to enter the city in the dark (although even then, he doubted whether it would be considered dark after all) and there was the so much noise, so many people, so much... _muchness_ that the teenager almost forgot why he was there in the first place._

_Clutching the piece of paper tightly in his hands, Keigo re-read the address and looked up at the monstrous building in front of him. It was lustrous, absolutely sleek and the sophistication reeked from its very walls. _

_All of a sudden, Keigo felt inferior, not only to the buildings, but to the people as well. Corporate suits entered and left the doors of the scraper faster than he could dodge Ichigo's punches, walking briskly, confidently as they made their way to another day of their routinely six-digit-Yen-per-month white collar jobs. Keigo gulped and slowly, carefully took a step towards the sliding doors. He could see the reception desk inside; it was large and white, made from possibly the most expensive wood out there. Even the edges of the large chandelier that hung from the endless ceiling seemed to dominate the 15 year old. The very idea of entering such a grand place that held no space for people like him seemed to terrify the teenager._

_'I can't do this.' he thought, gritting his teeth. 'It's too dramatic, I mean everyone can cope right? It's not a_ compulsion!_ Even Arisawa is perfectly fine. Silly me, acting all dramatic over something that could have possibly been trivial as hell. I don't need this. I really really truly absolutely don't need this...' _

_Picking up the pieces of his cracking resolve, Keigo began turning around to head back to the subway station when he heard a deafening roar. _

_Keigo halted, beads of cold sweat accumulating on his forehead as he felt himself tremble in fright. He scanned the crowd frantically. Apparently, no one had heard the monster, heck no one seemed to even be _bothered_ by it even if they did. Keigo tried calming himself down, taking slow, deep breaths and attempted to sense any uncanny pressure around the area. When he felt none, he gave the skyline a once-over before sighing in relief._

_It took a few seconds for the teenager to realise that there might have not been a monster in the first place. Maybe, the city was hollow free and it was just him._

_'It's just you.' his conscience began softly. 'You don't want to do this, but you should. You need it.'_

_Keigo really, really hated his conscience sometimes. Or whenever it actually had the sense to pop up into his mind. _

_'Enter the building Keigo. You can do this.'_

_Keigo huffed in annoyance, but he knew it was the right thing to do. Inhaling a fresh breath of air, the brunette straightened his back and headed towards the doors of the large tower._

_He made it to the reception desk, where a young lady in her mid-twenties was talking between phone-calls. The teenager couldn't help but check her out. She wore slim glasses that complimented her oval face, her skin was freshly caked with even make-up and she wore blood-red lipstick. She also had adorned a black deep-necked shirt under a white blazer and her red-painted nails clutched the receiver as she put it back on the desk. Keigo's eyes lingered to her lips a little longer before his eyes met hers and she began speaking._

_"How may I help you?"_

_His mouth suddenly went dry. She sounded so professional, so mature that Keigo was stumped in awe. Preventing his brain to scatter any longer, the teenager put on a little, nervous smile and replied "Um... I-I'm looking for the TCS department..." he trailed off, not really knowing what more he could say to her._

_"Right, their on the 14th and 15th floor. If you already have an appointment just go on to the 15th."_

_He sighed. "Thank you." With that Keigo Asano turned towards the lift and made his way to the 15th floor._

_After a good minute of awkward elevator music and pompous old women in cashmere (It was so fucking hot!) and 10 inch stilettos, Keigo made it to the 15th floor without tripping himself on his feet. _

_The corridor was short, and in front of him presented itself another reception desk for TCS specifically and numerous leather sofas on the side. The floor was carpeted in a comforting coffee brown and Keigo immediately felt relief flood through him. He didn't know what, but there was something about this place that wasn't as ominous as the rest of the building. He walked up to the desk and inquired about his appointment._

_"You name, Sir?" _

_"Asano Keigo."_

_"Just a second." The clerk muttered before typing away his name. When his result popped up the receptionist finally looked up from the monitor. "...Ah, you're fifteen years old?"_

_"Y-Yes." Keigo replied shakily. He had filled the form and ensured that it was signed by a parent of guardian. The way he did it, obviously required more morally questionable inquiries. Let's just say his family had no idea that he bunked school to come here._

_"Your forms have been signed by your sister, am I correct?"_

_"Yes." The brunette replied with more conviction. "But they couldn't make it, they're out of town." -and I've also only fed my sister's and my phone number, so there's that. Keigo thought but decided to keep that vital piece of information to himself._

_"Right, please be seated. Your appointment will begin shortly."_

_Keigo waited a good five minutes before he was called into another space. The moment he entered the room, he was hit by the smell of the most comforting fragrance by incense he had ever smelt. It was sandalwood, that was for sure, but with a tinge of aloe vera, maybe a little lemongrass too, if he breathed _just_ enough in-_

_"Your profile said that you weren't allergic to anything so I took it upon myself to decorate the room. You don't mind?" a baritone voice snapped Keigo out of his trance and he turned to his left only to come face-to-face with a gentle looking man in his mid-forties, with shaven hair and thick rimmed glasses. He gave a small smile to the teenager which Keigo returned with a swift bow._

_'He looks a little like Madarame, if you remove the glasses...' Keigo thought, feeling a smile threatening to form on his lips. His face then fell the moment he realised that people like Madarame were the reason he was here in the first place. _

_He was brought back to reality when he saw the man actually waiting for an answer to his previous question. Slightly flustered, Keigo murmured a small "N-No."_

_The man only smiled back. It made Keigo relax a little, but it soon dawned on him that his _own_ presence was very much _in_ the office. He was actually here. _

_He was actually doing this. _

_The brunette was beginning to have a cardiac arrest with how sudden his thoughts seemed at that moment. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. Should he introduce himself? Wasn't that already written in his record? Should he just start stating his problems? Won't that be too selfish thoug-_

_"It seems you have a lot to say Asano-san. May I call you that?" the deep voice asked him calmly. The teenager could only stare. How could this man even know what he was thinking? But then Keigo remembered that he was as transparent as air on a hollow-free day._

_"Y-Yes sir." He replied hastily. The man chuckled._

_"You need not call me so formally. Since this session is mainly about me listening to your story, I doubt honorifics would be a problem. My name is Suzuki Katsushi by the way, and I will be your therapist for the next fifty minutes."  
><em>

_"I-I think I... Can I call you Counselor Suzuki? I think it will be..." the boy trailed off. It will be what? Easier? Nicer? Less complicated for both of them? Keigo's mind was a mess, he couldn't decide what he wanted to say, or whether he was ready for this in the first place. He felt dizzy, and thirsty, and maybe he should just go home and get some sleep-_

_"Have a seat Asano-san. Or do you wish to lie down?" Keigo sat instead and at the same time began observe where he actually would be spending his next hour. _

_The room was multiple shades of brown, but bright at the same time. There were a couple of plants near the large, glass window that displayed the Tokyo skyline, while the ceiling was lit with dim, yellow lights that, despite being completely unnecessary in the afternoon, actually suited the whole interior. The sofas were black while the actual couch used for the session was a pale beige. There was also a TV, Keigo noted, beside which was a door that he only assumed led to the bathroom while the other end, near the window, had a water purifier and multiple mugs. _

_Keigo suddenly wished he lived in the city. Life wasn't simple here, but surely stylish, and _definitely_ less supernatural._

_The counselor seated himself across the teenager, serenely studying the variety of emotions that passed his face, from fear to apprehension to longing; before grabbing a notepad and a pen and began speaking._

_"So Asano-san, could you tell me something about yourself in general?" _

_He saw the boy shift uncomfortably, seemingly contemplating his answer, weighing the words between his tongue before finally settling on one introduction. The brunette had suddenly begun smiling -no- _grinning _like a cheshire cat__ and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out (of course, it took a psychotherapist though) that it was just a loose, poorly attempted facade, as if the child wanted to shout to the world, but was afraid. Afraid of getting judged, afraid of being rejected._

_Afraid of being alone._

_"Alright!" Keigo began enthusiastically, gestures and all. "My name is Asano Keigo, freshman at Karakura High School. I like listening to latest pop-music, and pretty girls well... if you know what I mean," he emphasized " and I am _certainly _not a part of the top fifty in our school. It's such a disgrace! My best friend Mizuiro always takes my side but Ichigo, Inoue-san and even Sado made it to the first fifty! Whatever happened to friendship?! I mean I get it, Ishida-san is the topper of the school, the district even! But they don't have to follow his footsteps! And I barely get to hang out with them anymore, they're always going to places without me and Mizuiro! Of course Mizuiro has his girlfriends that he keeps on texting, but give a guy a break would ya? And then there's my sister. I mean cause my parents mostly aren't in town its mainly Mizuho and me but sometimes-" The sound of a throat-clearing brought Keigo out of his mini-rant that sounded so fake even to him, that he hardly thought the therapist would believe it. _

_Hell he _knew_ the man won't... but Keigo couldn't do it. He couldn't._

_He suddenly fell silent and Suzuki said nothing, just waited for him to continue. They spent the next two minutes in pin-drop silence, with Suzuki patiently waiting for his client while Keigo bit his bottom lip until it almost drew blood._

_He didn't want to go through this. It would mean opening up to a complete stranger about things that only he and his friends could see. About shinigami, and hollows... in fact he was pretty sure the next time he met this man, he'd probably be sent to a mental ward. _

_What was he supposed to do? How did everyone else do it? Why..._

_Why was any of this happening in the first place?_

_All the questions the teenager wanted to ask hung in the air like heavy lead, weighing down on his very existence. He knew he'd never get his answers from the counselor, because none of this was supposed to be real. None of this was supposed to happen in his almost-perfect life. He was supposed to have __fun. _

Ichigo_ was supposed to have fun, to live life as peacefully as he could. _Ichigo_ was supposed to here, in his place, not Keigo. _

_But it was just so hard, he couldn't cope. How could _they_ do it?_

_How?_

_"How?" He began slowly, his voice wavering. "How do they do it? How does _everyone_ do it?" the tremble in his voice along with its amplitude rose until he was half-shouting. "_How?!_"_

_"How does everyone do what Asano-san?" Suzuki asked softly._

_"How can they live like this? Like nothing ever happened? How can they pretend that everything is alright when it's not? Even Mizuiro and Tatsuki... They were there! They were there with me when he came and they still act like a bunch of happy-go-lucky monkeys in a freaking doughnut farm!" His eyes stung. No, he wasn't going to cry. Guys don't cry, he reminded himself. They're the ones supposed to be protecting their families, their friends..._

_'Let it go Keigo,' his conscience whispered so softly and presently that he almost felt it right in his ear. 'Let it go...'_

_A tear escaped. "W-What's worse is that I... I have to act like them too. I'm forced to feel like a light-hearted, laid-back teenager and pretend like e-everything's okay." He swallowed. "But it's not. It's not okay... _I'm_ not okay. No one is... and it _frustrates_ me to no end it just-" Keigo took a deep breath, his palms clammy and shaking, while his brows furrowed deeper in all that burdening pain. _

_Suzuki finally spoke again. "Why don't we start from the beginning, Keigo?" The use of his name calmed the teenager down a bit and he nodded._

_"It all started about three or four months ago when a girl named Rukia Kuchiki transferred to our school..."_

* * *

><p>The door creaked open as the three figures entered the living room. Keigo tip-toed and switched on the dimmest light. The room illuminated itself with mere, glowing silhouettes of the two shinigami as they stood near the sofa.<p>

"Well? Have a seat." Keigo offered kindly, or as kind as a sleep-deprived teenager could sound like. Yumichika nodded in negation.

"We need to go to your room. It's more private there."

The younger raised his eyebrows in suspicion and shook his head in defeat, leading them to his room (he thankfully remembered to switch off the light in the living room, or Mizuho would have his head for breakfast in the morning). He turned his table lamp on and asked them to take a seat, again.

"We don't have much time." Ikkaku explained.

"Give me a break." Keigo muttered, rolling his eyes. "You _never_ have much time. Just tell me what happened."

The shinigami duo looked at each other before sighing in defeat. Yumichika began this time.

"We... sort of... rescued someone from... somewhere... and we'd like..." he trailed off, nervously. Keigo was surprised, Yumichika was _never_ nervous, and Ikkaku was never this... _pushy._ Both men had their pride at stake, and what he'd learnt from the Squad crap at the Soul Society, they were supposed to be the most honourable shinigami or something.

"Alright, what is_ up_ with you two? Ever since you've come here, both of you are acting unnaturally out of character. Is the situation that bad or did ya'll fall on your heads?" Keigo snapped. 

Madarame now looked furious while Ayasegawa just huffed and the irrational part of Keigo was somewhat relieved that neither man had changed. The more rational part though, realised too late that he wasn't exactly the perfect host for this 3 am visit. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Its just that humans aren't particularly appreciative of guests at the devil's hours of the morning, kinda makes us paranoid about bad news. You can imagine why." he gestured at both of their tired stated and shrugged simply, sounding not very sorry at all. "Just... I know _everything_ that's happened, so cut the crap will ya?" A yawn escaped his lips.

"Okay, then. If _that's_ how you want it," Yumichika glared at the brunette. "We rescued an Espada from Hueco Mundo and we want you to keep her hidden since the Soul Society is under the radar of the Quincies."

Keigo stared.

Okay, this was a new turn of events. Since when did the Soul Society ask such favours? And Quincy... wasn't that was Ishida was? Quincy-pride and all that jazz about him being the last of his kind... there were more? And they were attacking the shinigami. So that meant Ishida...

His jaw dropped. Before he could form a coherent sentence, the 5th seat continued. "_Don't_ ask how, don't ask why... we don't have enough time to explain this, I'm sure they're already tracking us down. Just tell us where to put the Espada and we'll leave."

Keigo opened his mouth and closed it again. He didn't waste any more seconds though, because if they really were under the radar, then he'd be fried into next year as well. "Where's this Espada you speak of?" he asked instead.

When they kept quite, and shifted uncomfortably, the human noticed the blanket again. He pointed at it, horror-struck. "_That?_ That is the Espada? What the fuck happened to it?"

"She's in a state of coma... as you'd put it."

"_Fuck, _fuck, fuck, fuck! It's too early for this... Ugh!" he clutched the strands of his now, slightly sweaty hair and tried not to hyperventilate. "Ju- Just put her on the bed." he paused. "Wait... _her? _You're keeping a _woman_ in my room?" he asked incredulously.

"This is not the time to worry about it." Madarame sighed as he rolled the blanket open and placed the figure on his bed.

It then dawned on Keigo that the blanket wasn't red to begin with. It was a white blanket. What was red was the blood on it.

_So much blood._

Keigo's stomach gave an uncharacteristic flip, indicating that he may or may not have to empty its contents. The body... or whatever was left of it, had dried blood smeared over it. Her blond hair (or at least that's what Keigo thought it was), was damp with the same liquid, making it look like a light rust colour. Her face... _Oh God,_ her face was littered in deep gashes along with the rest of her body and her... clothes? The boy was pretty sure they material was hollow-bone. _Her_ hollow bone, and it was cracked. Apparently it hurts like a bitch when the hollow's mask or the bone area cracks, Keigo couldn't even begin to imagine what she'd be going through despite doing his little crash-course in Supernatural-in-Karakura-101. She was barely breathing, and her bronze skin was paler than a ghost. How was she going to survive in _his_ house?

"I... I need to go... out." Keigo internally gagged and gestured towards the door. The two shinigami nodded affirmatively. "Just fix her up before I come back and we'll talk t-then." He shuddered before almost running out of his room.

He reached the kitchen and turned the knob of the faucet above the sink. Keigo took a handful of water and splashed it on his face, panting slightly as he tried to erase the picture of the supposed monster from Hueco Mundo practically dying in his bedroom. He inhaled slowly, to even his breathing and tried distract himself from the current situation.

_'Think of your favourite song'_ A familiar baritone voice rang in his head. Keigo relaxed a little. _'Keep humming it, and ask yourself why it's you like it so much; you'll find newer meaning to your life by something this simple.' _

His taste in music changed from time to time, but right now, it seemed to be stuck at 'Hey Brother' for the past few days. Actually, it was either that or a somber number by the Gazette that he knew would draw tears from his eyes and possibly vomit from his stomach so he really didn't have much of a choice despite his lack of preferences in DJs. Something was better than nothing after all.

Keigo began humming, slowly at first, with his eyes closed, as he tried to imagine what his version of the song could be. Who would be there if he made the music video? Keigo chuckled, such a silly diversion this was, but when his shoulders seemed to relax further, Keigo decided he did, in fact, have an answer to that question.

Shaking his tired head at his silliness, Keigo decided it would take them some time to clean their guest up, so he did what he could do in that place, at that time. 

Approximately fifteen minutes had passed by the time Ikkaku and Yumichika were done with the room. They ensured the sensors were correct, the pipes were fixed and that there were no holes for air-bubbles in the IV-like machines. They even checked for traces of blood (Yumichika insisted that it didn't look beautiful if they didn't clear all the blood, Ikkaku almost pouted) and whether all the napkins, cottons and medical instruments were disposed off completely.

The 5th seat checked his pager. "We have 15 minutes before they locate us." He, along with his partner exited the room after giving it a thorough once-over.

When they reached the dark living room, the duo smelt something. Something that materialised in front of them in the form of a large container of fried rice. They stared as the brown haired teenager pushed the humongous box towards them.

"Eat." He said "Ya'll look like coughed up fur balls from a cat with genital herpes."

Ayasegawa made a face while Madarame growled. "You son of a bitch, you _actually_ cooked?"

The younger huffed. "It wasn't for you. I just needed a distraction that didn't get me killed by my sister while you two did... whatever to the body." The 3rd seat smirked.

"Yeah right."

"Fine then, starve for all I care. I just hope you haven't ruined my roo-" Ikkaku grabbed the warm container swiftly and rolled his eyes. Yumichika smirked.

"How very noble of you _Asano-san_."

"Well, I expect a detailed explanation in return. Nothing's free here."

At this both shinigami's expressions turned grave. "We can't right now Asano. There isn't much tim-"

"Yeah yeah, 'We're being tracked by the freaking CIA of the life-after-death world' I get it. Why do you think I packed up the food? I'm not that much of an idiot you know." 

Yumichika didn't remember when was the last time he had smiled genuinely, but he had to give credit to the boy. He wasn't as stupid as he looked after all.

"I know ya'll won't promise, but we'll talk about this the next time we meet. For now brief me up on how to keep my new pet from dying." Keigo continued.

"Y-yes" Yumichika started. "We got all the equipment from the 12th Squad-"

"Nicked it, actually" Ikkaku interrupted.

"_Anyway,_" The 5th seat glared at his partner. "Just don't touch anything except the IVs with the transparent stuff. We've labelled all the things that need to be refilled and written instructions are already there. Also, make sure that the regulator near on the wall above the bed shows 0.5, nothing more, nothing less. The moment it does, change it back to it's original level."

"What does it do?"

"Maintains her reiatsu. They shouldn't be able to detect her, so we've used suppressors all over the room and on us. These guys are freakin' smart, so we gotta be extra careful" Ikkaku explained.

_'That explains why I couldn't detect their reiatsu either'_ the human thought.

"Okay... if that's all..." Keigo sighed but blinked back up. "Wait, wasn't there that shop owner with the stripped hat who actually _knows_ this crap?"

"He's in trouble too. We're _all_ in deep shit man. You're the only one who won't come under direct suspicion."

"_Direct _suspicion?!"

"It's a long list kid" the shinigami chuckled. "Anyway, we better get going, we're already behind schedule." with that, the seated officers headed for the exit.

"Yeah, you do that. And Ikkaku? Yumi?" Keigo asked. Both shinigami turned from the door (Yumichika raised an eyebrow at the nickname). "Try not to die this time. I'm gonna need someone to explain this to my family."

Ikkaku grinned. "Will do. And uh... thanks man." he spoke genuinely, before both men Shunpo'd out of his house, leaving no trace that they were there in the first place.

Keigo smiled a tired smile. "Anytime, brother."

He turned back to his bedroom, switching off all the lights in the process (and ensuring the kitchen was clean, although Mizuho was bound to ask about the missing large tupperware), and closed the door to his personal space.

_'Well, not so personal anymore. There's a vegetable on my bed.'_

He looked around the walls of his room and figured that everything was just as Yumichika had described. Numerous IV-looking-machines took up maximum space of the room, although there was some space for him on the floor for sleeping, and a path to the washroom. The desk was littered with what looked like a truckload of medical liquids that, indeed had several labels on them.

'_Well, there goes my study time_' Keigo sighed as he wondered whether he'd have to research through all of the chemicals on the table before actually applying it on the patient... girl... thing. 

Speaking of the patient-girl-thing, the 17 year old glanced at the bed, or more so, the figure on the bed that had, much to his relief, been cleaned up. In fact if Keigo took a closer look, apart from the bandages, the lady looked quite divine in her own exotic way. 

Her hair was definitely blond, he realised, and her skin was sun-kissed in the most beautiful ways. The rest of her body was covered in new white sheets that those two shinigamis seemed to have pulled out of their asses (along with every other equipment here. How did they carry all of that? Or was it some weird device from the other world again?), but Keigo could still make out that she had been blessed with the looks of a goddess back in her human days. Even when the teen's eyes remained fixed on her face, he found new things along the way.

Like her full lips and the peacock green markings on either side of her cheekbones that ran down her jaw, ending just above the end of what could possibly be burn marks... or that was the only way Keigo could explain in intricate detail a woman's beauty if he had to... it was a lousy attempt, but Keigo thought that words were simply not enough to give justice to the Goddess that everyone claimed was an Espada.

If it weren't for the mask, he would have thought the Gods had given him special blessings from the highest realm of Heaven by placing such a piece of art within his very reach. If it weren't for the fact he she wasn't human, Keigo would have been_ honoured._

But she _wasn't_ human. And he was. And Keigo promised to himself that he would be way past the phase of falling for women beyond his reach. Or more so the ones who weren't a part of his world at all.

Chuckling at himself, the teenager shook his head in defeat, eyes downcast, and decided it was time he too, went to bed.

Of course, after he spread the sheets on the floor and lay down on them, his mind refused to shut down. The day hadn't even started, yet his life had turned upside down once again within a matter of mere minutes. There were so many questions left unanswered.

Why _him?_ Why did they choose him of all people? There was Mizuiro, Tatsuki, Chizuru too... why would anyone in their right mind ask him such a favour? And at what cost? Was it really worth it? Not to mention, why had they rescued her in the first place? Weren't Espada the bad guys, the villains? What the actually _hell_ was going on? Most of all, how was he going to explain the coma patient on his bed to Mizuho in the morning?

He needed to think of a story... fast. At the same time though, he wanted his sleep _desperately_. Keigo could almost feel the sun beginning to rise, and dread pool in his abdomen.

"This is so fucked up." he mumbled before shutting his eyes.

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN: And the first chapter is up! It isn't particularly beta-read so I apologize for any grammatical errors. I do feel that I've portrayed Keigo a lot more mature than his character in the manga, however, that too will be explained as the story unfolds later. This is after all, a slice-of-life fic. Also, why this pairing? I really have no clue... let's just say this story was made on impulse. **

**Do R&R to let me know how you found it! **

**-SA**


	3. Chapter 02

**Chapter 02 - Another one bites the dust**

* * *

><p>By the time it was 7, Keigo had already formulated a loose, utterly flawed plan that Mizuho may or may not buy depending on her mood and whether or not her boyfriend had texted her in the morning. Keigo was already dressed in his school uniform, with his lunch packed and his shoes on so that he could bolt immediately if she threw a tantrum.<p>

It was a shit morning, if you asked the seventeen year old, the skies were ashen, and the air was cold but humid at the same time making everything just awfully stuffy. Keigo's palms turned clammy as he stared at the watch beside the sofa in the living room. He remembered to keep the door to his room shut _and _locked and he fiddled with the key from time to time, waiting for his sister to wake up.

The clock showed 7:04 in bright red LED segments and the brunette began a mental countdown, frantically looking at her door and the watch. Cold sweat beaded his forehead and he wiped it away in frustration.

_Damn the weather. 3… 2… 1…_

7:05

The door to her room opened and out came Mizuho yawning loudly.

"The hell is it so bright?" she croaked, shielding her eyes from the lights, ruffling her bed-hair.

"Morning." Keigo greeted, not too loud for he knew she'd cringe and eventually, kill him.

"Keigo? Why're you up so early?" she paused, "And you're _ready._"

"Err… yeah. Why don't you go freshen up? I'll set the breakfast." Mizuho chuckled quietly and left for a shower. Keigo sighed. She _was_ in a good mood. Either her preparations for university exams were going well, or she slept like a log.

_The latter,_ Keigo thought. _Easily the latter._

He got up and flitted around the dining table, setting up her favourite pancakes (with Nutella, bananas _and_ a brownie), straightening the position of the plate and wiped the table clean. He drew the curtains opened and switched off a few lights and even put on her favourite radio channel while glancing at his room every now and then.

The plan had to go perfectly, mostly because it wasn't all that convincing and he just needed to ensure that the species from the after-life in his room didn't walk out of the door suddenly, or rather blast it open.

_She's barely breathing though. She won't heal that fast, you idiot._

Keigo shook his head. He really was acting stupid, but he couldn't risk _anything_, anything at all. Just before preparing himself for his speech, Keigo mentally checked off the list for his patient: Her IVs were refilled, bandages were replaced on her face and… everywhere else (Keigo blushed), the reiatsu level remained 0.5 on that godforsaken mete-

"Oi!"

Keigo whirled around only to face an expressionless Mizuho with her hands on her hips. "Hi!" he squeaked.

It seemed as if her good mood had dropped as she sat on her chair, suspiciously eyeing her brother. Keigo figured that she realized he was hiding something, judging by the number of times she might have witnessed him glancing at his room while he thought she was in the bathroom.

_Shit._

He should have thought of a backup plan (apart from running away from home and not returning for a week), because the glare his sister was now giving him sent chills all over his body.

She _knew_. She had to. The woman was a cop-hound when it came to detecting trouble. And judging by all the events that transpired in the last few hours, Keigo knew he was in _deep _shit.

A part of him decided to just blurt it out and get over with it (and then run, obviously), but he needed to consider the being currently struggling to stay alive in his room and decided against it. If Mizuho didn't accept this, they'd all be in danger.

He decided to wait for a few more minutes, until his sister finished her breakfast, but the latter decided to speak mid-way.

"I know something is up." Mizuho began bluntly, sounding none-too-gentle as she dropped her fork on the plate, eliciting an ungraceful _clank!_ and folded her arms as if she meant business. "Spit it out squirt!" she snapped.

Keigo didn't say anything. He hung his head low and tried to breathe deeply.

_You can do this,_ his conscience chanted. _It needs to be done._

"Keigo!" Mizuho barked, storming towards his side of the table. The boy looked up, and stared at her towering figure and sighed. Slowly, he too, got up from his chair and looked her in the eye.

"I need to tell you something."

Mizuho scoffed, "No shit."

"No I mean…" Keigo's stance faltered. _Focus!_ "M-Mizuho, you know… despite how annoying and insufferable you find me, I'll do anything to keep you safe right?" _Right?_ He wanted to add, just to assure himself. The elder narrowed her eyes.

"_What did you do this time?"_ her voice lowered and she stepped closer, rolling her wrist. Keigo gulped.

"I-I didn't do anything!" he exclaimed, "Promise!"

"Then do you look so damn suspicious?"

"Um… how do I say this…" he flinched when he saw her raise her fist. "IKKAKU VISITED!" he blurted.

The elder stopped in her tracks, arm frozen mid-air and her eyes widened in disbelief. They stood there for a moment, then two_, then three…_

"What?" her voice came out as a whisper. Keigo himself was at a loss for words at her reaction. Mizuho suddenly looked so lost, so fragile with that horror-struck expression, he questioned if he should have said anything in the first place.

Decided that the damage was already done, the brunette continued, "He came home, with his friend… last night." Keigo explained, softly. He wasn't particularly aware of how deep Mizuho's feelings were for the shinigami all those years ago, but judging by her reaction, she probably wasn't over him yet. He sighed. "He asked me for a favour."

"What favour?" she questioned, equally low but with a certain edge in her voice. "What _kind _of favour did he ask for?" Her eyes flared with anger and suddenly, she screamed, "_What the fuck does he want now?"_

Keigo bit his lip. His sister was either going to castrate him, or breakdown. He wasn't sure which one he wanted to endure first.

With the trembling fist finally by her side, Mizuho whirled around and began stomping out of the room; only to be grabbed by the elbow by her brother.

"Mizuho… this is important." he began, "Hear me out. _Please."_

"S-shut up! I don't want to hear anythi-" a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders and brought her close to a strong build.

"Sis," Keigo spoke gently, "Just this one time."

Mizuho's shoulders slumped and trembled as a part of her wondered how this idiot of her brother grew up to be so mature. He was figuratively just a mere parasite of annoyance and now he's this pillar of support who knew exactly what to say when. It was ludicrous, utterly bizarre how someone so hyper-actively shallow and absolutely naïve could turn into a compassionate savior in his own little way. Mizuho had been somewhat observing him over the months; it wasn't all that prominent but there were moments such as this one where she was stumped by his very over-powering existence.

"Why do you sound so old?" Mizuho began after a few minutes. She heard a soft chuckle and turned to face her brother. He'd grown taller, and it sucked a little at how she couldn't hit him much anymore. "How did you grow up so soon?"

"If I tell you how, you'll get mad," came his cheeky reply. Mizuho huffed and tapped the side of his head and he laughed.

"But you need to know this." Keigo turned serious again. Despite how his sister may feel, it constantly occurred to him that this conversation was urgent.

She sighed. "Fine, what is it that you're hiding in your room?"

Keigo blinked. He couldn't be that obvious could he? "Huh?"

"Really."

"Well… yes."

"Keigo-"

"Okay fine, fine!" And he'd gone back to being the immature bundle of nerves again. "So Ikkaku and Yumichika came home last night and they wanted me to hide something from them."

"Hide _what?"_

"Well… it's more of a _someone_, when you think about it."

"_What?"_

"A… female someone…?"

"WHAT?!"

Needless to say, Asano Keigo did end up with a swollen forehead and a black-eye to school that day.

* * *

><p>When he reached school, Keigo decided not to tell Mizuiro anything. Or Tatsuki. Or Chizuru. Basically nobody was supposed to know about the two shinigami's visit this morning. That was the whole point of them appearing at his doorstep; to keep the rest away from trouble. Besides, the lesser his best-friend knew about the Comeback Of The Supernatural, the safer he was bound to be.<p>

"What's up, Asano-san?" greeted Mizuiro, not looking up from his phone, as they met in the corridor. Keigo had long given up on insisting to be called by his real name. He finally realised last year that Mizuiro partially did it out of spite, and partially to see the other react. And Keigo was not going to give him that satisfaction.

"Nothing much," the brunette replied, trying to stifle a yawn. It would be an understatement to say that he didn't sleep well last night.

When the raven-haired finally looked up after sending a message, he raised his eyebrows. "You look like you swallowed a spider." he stated blankly, "Why is there a bump on you forehead?"

"Mizuho," came a short reply. It's usually a sufficient answer to all of Keigo's bruises honestly. Of course, back in the day (at fifteen), Keigo's body would have been covered with scabs and blisters not only due to his sister, but also a couple of bullies and a peculiar orange-haired kid with the worst anger-management issues, but ever since the war thing between shinigami and the hollows, somehow the bullying stopped. Whether it was because the air in the town changed or because he was more cautious ever since, Keigo didn't know. But he couldn't complain.

His friend simply nodded and went back to texting when his phone lighted up. The duo entered the class (Keigo hadn't been late since he had started his therapy. No one questioned him because they too, had somewhat sobered up after what happened in Karakura all those months ago) and sat on their respective desks. Keigo's was near the window while Mizuiro's was to his right. Ichigo normally sat in front of him, but ever since his absence, Tatsuki has fearlessly been exploiting his spot rather than sitting next to Orihime's empty one.

As the classroom began flooding in with students, Keigo yawned and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his eyes tiredly before looking out of the window. They still had a good five minutes before class started so he whiled his time doing something he would never had done at fifteen.

He thought.

Keigo thought about the events that transpired at breakfast that morning. He thought about how Mizuho had, after a long time, let her guard down when he told her about Madarame. He thought about how that sadness changed to anger when he told her about the female guest locked up in his room. And how she punched his head hard enough for the swelling to last a week.

It was obvious that she was infuriated, but Keigo had to continue convincing her. The teenager knew when the right time was to give up, but something this important wasn't going to just go away. And they didn't have enough time to just put the topic rest for a bit. So Keigo promised his sister, after owing her a treat at her favourite restaurant and two tickets to the amusement park that he would explain everything (and this time, he meant **_everything_**) to her once they got back from school. In the mean time, since he knew Mizuho was getting late and it was her final year before University, he decided to keep his room locked and left the house with the keys deep in his pocket. Mizuho yelled at him again, and aimed a plate at his face, before grudgingly agreeing and running out of the house to get to school on time.

So far, things weren't going particularly bad. Keigo knew he would jinx his luck if he said that everything went according to plan. It didn't, but it could have been worse. Far worse actually. He only hoped that the situation remained just as stagnant when he reached home as it was when he left it.

The bell finally rang and Ms. Ochi began the roll call. Keigo almost missed his if it wasn't for Tatsuki flicking his forehead. Keigo winced, the spot still sore from his sister's rage, before giving his name and looking out the window again.

He didn't notice the raised eyebrow Mizuiro gave him and the frown on Tatsuki's face.

By the time it was lunch, Keigo was far from relieved. He was hyper aware of his surroundings and constantly on edge.

Sometime during class, he felt a wave of uneasiness wash over him. Of course, he had all the right to, since the source of all his potential problems was half-dead in his bedroom, but this was something else, and he couldn't exactly point out what.

As he reached the terrace of the school with his lunch in hand, Keigo knew what the jitters were for. He realised, far too late that he would have to initiate conversation with the two of the most perceptive people he knew. The brunette was not ready for that, because he knew they'd see right through him if he tried to hide anything.

It was a given that Keigo was a master of deceiving people. He had done so for a whole _month_ after the fiasco and impending doom of his hometown. No one had suspected a thing, and even after therapy, when Keigo had visibly sobered up, his friends didn't ask. Because it affected them as much as it did to him, if not more. Also because Keigo never let his facade slip all this time. They had worse issues in their own life than bothering about him, and unlike them, the boy had a place to went out his frustrations even though it was all the way in Tokyo.

But the teenager was sure that Mizuiro had noticed his sleep deprivation (because he was... well... too sleepy to _hide_ it) this morning, and he was sure as hell Tatsuki found it weird that he didn't constantly poke her shoulder with his pen when Ms. Ochi wasn't looking, as he always did. In short, he slipped up his mask and there was no point acting unnecessarily cheery when it was obvious he felt like shit.

Keigo was screwed, and he knew it was too late to come up with an excuse for his secretive behaviour as he saw Tatsuki, Chizuru, Mahana and Michiru approaching him with a trailing Mizuiro, fingers ever so busy on the keypads of his cellphone. He was going to think of another excuse for his uncharacteristic (to them at least) behaviour other than _'Hey guys, did you know that I've been dealing with PTSD for the past year mostly because I'm not over what happened all those months ago? Oh! And also, there's a hollow dying in my room at this very moment and if she shows any signs of response we're all gonna be screwed by a bunch of Ishida's people from upstairs!'_

An idea did pop up, however, sometime during his reeling thoughts but he pushed it aside because it was a low blow. Even for him. He couldn't use _that_ reason to hide his genuine distress.

But as everyone already seated themselves opposite him in a little circle, Keigo knew he was out of options, and he was going to have to go with it. That is... if they even went as far as asking him about it.

"Hey guys!" The brunette chirped, not too brightly, but just enough to not have them suspecting his odd actions. Except Mizuiro and Tatsuki of course.

"Hey," Mizuiro replied, finally putting his phone down (he _never_ did that. He _knew_) as he grabbed his juice carton and poked a straw into it. Keigo honestly didn't expect the duo to not catch up to him. It had been _so very long_ that he let his facade slip that Keigo forgot what it felt like to be so _exposed_. Even if it was in front of the only two people he could trust in the school. The bright side of the situation was that Arisawa and Kojima couldn't ask him anything in the presence of the other three without sounding suspicious. It meant that the 'confrontation' could be stalled for slightly longer (if he was lucky, at least until school ended).

Unfortunately for him, they had other plans. It seemed as if both of them had discussed Keigo's comportment before meeting up with him, judging my the mutual look they shared which would have gone unnoticed by the Keigo from two years ago, but presently, the brunette almost hated himself for developing observational skills.

Once again, it slipped the teenager's mind that apart from being perceptive, Kojima and Arisawa were also awfully good at faking nonchalance.

Both of them sat on either side of Keigo, facing Chizuru, Mahana and Michiru while they chatted animatedly. Keigo commented on a few of their discussions so that they didn't suspect anything, quite like Tatsuki's airy quips from time to time.

As they ate, Kojima spoke up.

"Something's not okay," he stated before biting into a piece of broccoli. He ensured that the other three didn't hear him; that it was only Tatsuki and Keigo who needed to know this.

Keigo sighed. He was going to have to build his walls again. "Whatever do you mean," he deadpanned, not even bothering to hide his irritation (of course he wasn't _irritated,_ just mighty afraid of the consequences of telling them that a full fledged (well, not _yet)_ espada was taking up his bedroom space. A female one at that).

"You've been acting strange today," Tatsuki intervened while smirking at something Chizuru said. "You're sleep deprived even."

Keigo didn't reply.

"You know you can tell us right?" Mizuiro turned to look at him, concerned (it was the first time, ever, that his best friend had showcased his concern for Keigo. He was worried during the 'war', but it wasn't directed at him. It was _never_ directed at him, until now). "What's going on?"

"How can I tell you something you already know?" Keigo rebutted sharply, albeit not too loud. "You wanna know what's going on?" he turned to Tatsuki, eyes narrowing as he tried to make his best 'pissed-off' face. "Oh, _I don't know_... our friends are out gallivanting to God-knows-where, fighting possibly another swarm of demons like they _always_ do when they're together," he snapped for good measure, "Our town could be in danger _again,_ because we're just a band of insufferable misfits who can't seem to get a hint and back off... And did I mention that they haven't been home in a month? _Again?_" he looked at both of them now incredulously, his face in the most sarcastic scorn he could muster.

Keigo observed how their faced turned from concerned to well... more concerned, all for different reasons now. He heard Arisawa sigh and Mizuiro unlock his phone and he furiously tapped its buttons. _So much for defense mechanism,_ the brunette thought.

In all honesty, Keigo felt awful for lying to his friends. He knew he sounded like a brat; it made him cringe inwardly. He felt even worse when he realised that he used the only thing that triggered _all_ of them against the duo, but he couldn't - _wouldn't_ - let them find out. It was _too dangerous, too risky_. This time, judging by the state Ikkaku and Yumichika were in, they probably won't be able to make it back. And if he could help with even the littlest things to make it work, Keigo would. In the end, all he wanted was to lead a normal, hopefully, sedentary life. And if it required keeping a hidden former-villain in his house, then so be it. He just wanted this to go as smoothly as possible. With the least damage it could muster.

_And by damage, I mean Collateral,_ he thought dryly, before putting up his mask of exasperation again.

"We... we didn't know you felt that way, Keigo." Mizuiro finally said. Now that Keigo could see him better, he noticed how his best friend looked worse for wear. There were tired lines somewhere under his eyes, albeit not too noticeable, but there. And his eyes were dull; he wasn't even concentrating on the numerous messages he received within a span of minutes. Keigo felt even more sorry now.

"Yeah, well, there's a lot you don't know about me." he muttered looking away and picking up his lunch. His appetite lost itself on the way, and Keigo wasn't too keen on attaining it back.

The conversation ended then. It was rather quick, much like the brunette wanted it to be, but his words hung heavily in the air around the three. The others didn't notice, or even if they did, they had the decency to not ask about it and continued finishing their lunch.

Keigo sighed. It hadn't even been a day yet and he wondered how much longer he had to keep this act up.

* * *

><p>When he reached home, Mizuho was already there, finishing up her assignment on the computer.<p>

"I'm home," he mumbled, exhausted beyond words as he grabbed a bottle of water and sipped it while approaching his sister.

Mizuho closed the tabs and turned her chair to face him, her expression dry and demanding.

"Good, so you might do both of us a favour and open that damn door!" And a punch to his gut. Keigo groaned as he hunched, grabbing his stomach.

"That was pretty unnecessary."

"Like hell it was!" she yelled. "You promised you'd tell me what's going on!" A flick to the forehead.

"I will if you stop assaulting me and listen!" he exclaimed.

Mizuho scoffed, resting her hands on her hips before rolling her eyes. "Fine."

Keigo raised his index finger, silently asking her to give him a minute, before nursing his head and walking towards the sofas in the living room. She followed him there, her jaw clicking in impatience.

"Hurry up!"

"Sheesh, sis, you need to chill out."

"Don't you dare tell me to _chill out_ when there's a dead person in our house-"

"She's not dead! Well, not yet anywa-"

"Damn it, Keigo!"

"Okay!" Keigo raised his hands in surrender. "Okay," he repeated, before seating himself on one of the arm-rests. Mizuho too, sat on the couch and folded her arms.

"Now tell me," she demanded.

Keigo sighed.

He did.

He told her _everything._

* * *

><p>It had been a week since the speech of revelations and, startlingly enough, Mizuho didn't take long to fall into their new routine. And by new routine, it meant waking up half-an-hour earlier than usual, checking their patient's reiatsu levels, refilling her IVs with mysterious liquids, cleaning her up (Keigo left that to his sister), heading to school, coming back, checking the reiatsu again, completing assignments, self-study, sleep and repeat.<p>

There was food and nutrition somewhere in that timetable, but Keigo didn't bother keeping track because both his sister and himself were so _exhausted_ after the whole ordeal each day, they didn't even notice when it was the weekend.

At first, when Keigo told her about the shinigami and their world, Mizuho has rolled her eyes and told him to beat it. But that didn't stop him and he almost forced her to listen to his side of the story. He told her about Ichigo, his powers, about Rukia-the-suspicious-exchange-student, about Chad, Orihime, Ishida, about more suspicious-exchange-students including Madarame and Ayasegawa who freely mooched off their resources. He told her about why they were in the human world, about hollows and their army of specialised, ranked monsters among who their blonde-haired patient was number 3 against (Mizuho gasped at the hollow hole below her waist and almost strangled him for that), about the long-haired, crazy-eyed bastard with a God-complex who hurt his friends, about Ichigo losing his powers and some other crap that happened in between with Chad which no one bothered to fill him in upon.

When his sister asked why the enemy was in their home, Keigo explained, in minute detail, his encounter with Ikkaku. About how there were beings called 'Quincies' or some shit who had a leader with a worse God-complex than the crazy-eyed moth. He told her that if they saved this patient, they had a chance of winning against the bad guys. Possibly. He wasn't sure (Mizuho hit him on the head with a tea coaster).

What he didn't tell her were how he used a sword of a shinigami for the first time, how he surprisingly was a fast runner and tried his best to save their asses but was too weak for it. He didn't tell her that every week, a month after the war, he would skip school and take the train to the city to vent his problems out to a stranger who listened for a living. He didn't need to tell her all of that, those were his demons... and not her problem.

She cried then, for a long time, and Keigo consoled her with silence. He let her cry, it was too much to take in. He couldn't blame her, after all, it had been almost three hours since he started. He looked at the clock and realised it was dinner time.

He made her dinner and she ate quietly. Then she told him she wanted to help and he smiled and took her to his bedroom, where the person (creature) of interest lay. She gasped, he whispered 'I know' and went on to explain the various machines from what he could remember.

Ever since then, the picture in Keigo's head had been a lot clearer. Unintentionally, Keigo had vented our a part of his frustration to someone and it made him feel lighter sharing the secret. He knew that Mizuho knowing all of this would put her in danger, but that was inevitable anyway since she lived with him. He could use some help, and if - _when_ - trouble arrived, Mizuho would at least be prepared.

Keigo knew he put both of them at a very risky position. Then he realised that it wouldn't have changed either way.

Fate was a bitch.

It was finally Friday, and Keigo spent the whole of lunch perched upon a tree, tapping on his phone. He had connected the meter above the patient's head to his phone via broadband to check on her reiatsu levels from time to time.

On Wednesday, while he was headed home, a hollow just happened to appear near his apartment, trashing and roaring loudly. It was large and awful, with its mask extending up to its arms and had a gray tail that easily blew a couple of cars to ashes. It headed for Keigo's place, and he knew that because of how close it was to his window. From the road, Keigo to see it approaching his room specifically and its all clicked in place. Luckily, one of the patrolling shinigami appeared and killed the creature, but Keigo didn't waste time and ran to his house only to find the door to his room opened and the patient writhing on his bed in pain. Panicking and not knowing what to do, Keigo refilled IVs to no luck. It was when he saw the meter for her reiatsu, his eyes widened in horror. It was on 0.65. Keigo reduced it and followed the procedure again before sighing and falling on the couch.

He then decided he needed to constantly check up on her without physically being able to (cause let's face it, even though Keigo hated school, his grades weren't going to increase all by themselves) and he... swallowing much of his fear, grabbed a screw driver and started working on the meter.

He took the whole of Thursday off to work on the meter (after explaining it to his sister of course, who encouraged him (and pressured him) to finish it the same day to 'save their asses from any more grotesque pokemon') and would flinch every time it beeped and increased, but he would fix it again.

The technology, Keigo realised, was not much different than human computers. The meter too, had wires of questionable materials, but they functioned almost the same. Keigo had fixed his video games enough times to know basic wireless connections, so he only hoped that it would work that time as well. It did... partially. He connected the meter to his phone, but he couldn't change it through the device, which didn't help much, but at least he would be aware of trouble before it actually came in the form of large, unearthly beasts from the sky.

The meter didn't change the entire day, and it left Keigo partly relieved while the other part was worried if his phone was working or not. He installed the program on Mizuho's phone too, in case she was closer to home than he was.

Still, he couldn't help but feel queasy all Friday. There was a gnawing in his stomach and instinct told him that something was going to happen that day. He didn't know what, he just hoped it wasn't anything supernatural. He could use a few hours forgetting that everything that happened all those months ago was just a meaningless dream, and that he would be the same old (annoying) Keigo with an obsession with video games, girls, arcades and a strong dislike for anything moderately educational.

Keigo hated his instincts, because they were right almost all the time. Still, he walked home with Mizuiro, trying to listen to what little he had to say while he was on his phone and pretending to be a hyperactive loser again.

It all changed with the air around them did, and Keigo felt a strong blast of reiatsu hit them both, almost making them lose their balance.

"What the hell is that?" Kojima asked, eyes wide, and phone forgotten as the atmosphere became considerably heavier. The duo supported themselves against the wall as they tried to detect its source. "Another one of those hollows?" he almost yelled.

"Maybe!" Keigo called back and immediately fished out his phone. The meter level hadn't changed since he left home. It was still stuck on its usual 0.5.

_What if it's broken?_ The brunette thought, panicking. It certainly felt like a hollow, one that was probably targeting the teenager's house again, but he couldn't let his friend know about it. He had to think fast before running off to its source. No hollow has had such strong spirit force before. None that Keigo had encountered at least.

Suddenly, the force died down, and the air lightened. The reiatsu was gone. Both Keigo and Mizuiro sighed in relief as they balanced themselves on their feet once again. The black-haired male dusted the dirt off his pants and turned to Keigo, panting.

"That was..." he began.

"Yeah," Keigo agreed. It was... intense, to say the least. The fact that it disappeared only raised more questions in Keigo's head than before. It could be that the hollow was slain. But the reiatsu was too strong for a local shinigami to take it single-handed. As far as Keigo knew, Karakura had pretty shitty soul reapers on patrol.

But Mizuiro didn't think twice about it. Or didn't want to, Keigo couldn't guess.

"Well, I'm glad its over though." he said.

"...Yeah," Keigo was still suspicious, but he didn't show it. Not yet.

"Anyway, better get home. Don't wanna get into _that_ mess again," Kojima vaguely pointed a thumb towards the possible source of the hollow's reiatsu.

"Me neither," Keigo fibbed. "See ya tomorrow?"

"Yep. Bye, Asano-san."

"Later."

Once Kojima was out of sight, Keigo quickly texted Mizuho to check on their house. He then looked around the area. No one else had noticed the force, of course they didn't, but the more Keigo observed, the more he realised that the reiatsu was in fact... _not gone. _

His eyes fluttered opened (he didn't realise when he closed them) in horror as he tracked the spirit force to its source.

The hollow was still there somewhere, of course it wouldn't just _disappear._ It was too strong, even someone as human as Keigo could make that out, to be defeated that easily.

Despite every nerve of his body protesting, Keigo sprinted towards the source. He needed to see for himself what it was. And if it was a hollow, why was it here? Was it because of the Espada in his room? It can't have come to Karakura _accidentally,_ the town was saturated in spirit force (or so Keigo recalled as Ishida told him). He didn't know what it wanted, and he could always run if it was too terrifying, so Keigo decided it was worth checking.

After all, someone needed to keep this town safe when Ichigo was away (from the corner of his eye, Keigo saw a local shinigami lazing under the sun and scoffed).

He reached the warehouses near the park. The reiatsu was more prominent here. And it was the perfect hiding place for whatever was inside one of those abandoned buildings.

_It can't be a regular hollow,_ the brunette thought, _It's too smart for that. Ho__llows don't hide._

Keigo's brain finally caught up with him and he began feeling nervous. Suddenly, his curiosity simmered to a familiar fear he hadn't felt for seventeen months. His breaths came in short gasps and pants from running too much as his palms turned sweaty. The reiatsu was coming from the warehouse in front of him.

_You're so screwed Asano,_ his conscience chided, and he had to agree. He was screwed. Keigo could just turn back now. Go home, check on an already residential hollow there and live his new life as a part-time home-nurse and high-school student; or he could enter that building, ensure whatever's in there won't harm the people in Karakura (more importantly, won't harm his _friends_) and feel a thousand times lighter on the shoulders.

"The second one it is then," Keigo muttered, a sudden righteousness pulsing through his veins. It didn't matter he lost his life in the process (well... it _did_), as long as Keigo did everything in his power (or lack thereof) to protect his hometown.

He walked towards the door of the abandoned architecture and slowly opened it (it made an annoying, loud creak that sent chills up his spine). _Yes,_ this was the source. This is where the hollow hid. Gulping, Keigo entered the place slowly. The rational part of his mind, (after giving up on trying to get his butt out of the place (and failing)) berated him for not carrying anything close to a weapon. Even pepper-spray sounded appealing, or a simple baseball bat. But it was too late for that.

He carefully trudged over the broken glass pieces and pieces of metal that littered the floor and walls, trying not to make a sound as he headed towards wherever his senses took him.

After a good fifty meters into the warehouse, Keigo finally saw a human figure on the floor. It looked unconscious.

Keigo sighed in relief; it was a person.

When he approached it though, Keigo's jaw hung open.

Said person was lying on his stomach, with his face planted on the floor.

It wasn't the toned, muscled body or the mop of striking blue hair that confounded Keigo.

It was the hole on his abdomen, just above a large, black, tattooed '6' that did.

_Fate was a big, big, bitch._

* * *

><p><strong><span>AN: Finally an update! The next chapter will have a rather long author's note explaining Keigo's personality in this story, so just a heads up! Meanwhile, do review! I'd really like some feedback on this story, and if any changes are needed (apologies for it not being beta read. I'm guessing there are one-too many grammatical errors).**

**Until next time.**

**-SA**


	4. Chapter 03

**Chapter 03: The Mighty Fall**

* * *

><p>Asano Keigo was a dude with a morally questionable personality, crappy-ass grades, poor performance in athletics, and the attention span of a cat around laser light. Still, he wasn't stupid.<p>

He knew when he was neck deep in shit and, while Keigo's conscience had told him a day ago that things weren't so bad; he was pretty damn sure things were horrific by now. This was his personal limit to how much trouble a seventeen-year-old boy could get into. And he wouldn't consider Ichigo, Ishida or Sado in this, because, unlike them, he didn't ask for it.

Thanks to Ishida's know-it-all rant on every detail of higher ranked evil-dead-people, it took exactly four seconds for Keigo to realise that, lay in front of him, was the sixth most powerful evil-dead-person ever and it was almost unconscious with its ragged, barely there breathing and absolute train-wreck of a gash on his stomach.

The blood that began pooling at his feet from the hollow's abdomen made Keigo wonder if he would be able to see its intestines if he turned it over. Then he wondered if hollows even had intestines, specifically this one, considering its hole was right where said organs were meant to be. Keigo tried not to gag at that thought. He couldn't think like that at the time of crisis - which was all the time nowadays - and had to find another way to fix... this.

Deep down, Keigo knew the answer to the dying problem in front of him despite hyperventilating and controlling an upcoming panic attack and he was not ready to venture into that thought. It would only complicate everything more and Mizuho won't be able to handle it and she'll probably commit suicide or worse; this hollow would kill her because it can't keep it's reiatsu in check and oh, my God, he'll definitely be fried if anyone other than him detects the reiatsu and Keigo just needed to _breathe._ He knelt down next to the figure and grasped his head in his hands, tugged at his hair to snap out of it. His chest heaved and his body trembled while he tried so hard to swallow down the choked sob that escaped his lips traitorously and it made him almost punch the closest pillar.

_Breathe Keigo,_ he thought. _Even breaths. Come on... count to ten. One... two, three..._

He couldn't lose control like this when the creature right next him was certainly stronger by ten fold even in this state.

_Four..._

But Keigo still needed to keep it safe, both of them actually, because another espada meant another way for Quincies to track him down.

_Five, six, seven..._

This one had blue freaking hair though. Keigo couldn't see his face but he was sure he'd be wanting to crawl back home if he did. The thought made Keigo tense a bit and he shuddered, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. _Even breaths... Breathe in..._

_Eight, nine..._

_Breath out..._

_Breathe in,_

_Breathe out._

_In,_

_Out._

_Ten._

Keigo opened his eyes, concentrating on his heart rate, that seemed to have lowered down to just above normal. It would have to do though, he didn't have enough time for a clearer mind than this. He sighed deeply, let his hands rest on his lap and looked to his left. The hollow seemed to have given up consciousness, probably when Keigo was in the midst of his own episode and that relieved him, though only slightly.

_Alright Asano, time to put your thinking cap on._

This one was number six, which, according to the hollow encyclopedia that is Ishida, made him less stronger than the blonde bombshell in his room.

_So if I can take care of number three, number six shouldn't be too much of a problem._

The upside to the situation was that Keigo was one of the few gifted in Karakura who could see spirits in absolute clarity, so he probably needn't worry about people witnessing a high-school kid carrying a six-foot-something injured man with a hole in his stomach to a decent apartment in the good side of town.

The down side was that Keigo was weak as fuck. And while he was rather proud of admitting it (which he wouldn't have if he was a freshman, thinking it would bruise his manhood), he realised pride wouldn't help him get this hulk of a guy anywhere.

"Well, you won't know if you won't try, I guess..." Keigo murmured to himself and took a deep breath, trying to be as optimistic as possible.

When he finally turned the comatose-d hollow on his back, all optimism seemed to be drained out of him.

"Oh brother," The gash on his stomach was more of an opened set of stitches. And it was oozing far too much blood to be considered only critical. Now that just didn't make any sense.

_There's no time for sense, asshat._ Ah, there you are, beloved conscience, _just pick him up and get the hell out of here._

Keigo took off his jacket and just managed to tie it to the espada's stomach in hopes of at least slowing down the flow. He lifted its right hand, put it over his shoulder and pulled. The teenager groaned when the creature barely moved, but kept trying to lift it up. When he managed that, he pushed both of them off the ground and held its waist closer to himself. Personal space could go to hell.

Keigo didn't even bother taking a good look at the hollow, too worked up on getting it home. All he knew was that it's hollow bone was set to its jaw and his hair was just as blue from front as it was from behind, making him resemble every blue-haired visual-kei band member ever.

It would be quite ironic if that was what Espada Number Six was before he died. Keigo would laugh, but he realised he was running out of time and forgetting something very, very important.

Ah.

His sister.

She was going to kill him.

He dug out his phone from his right pocket and he began limping out of the warehouse, school bag on one shoulder, insanely heavy un-dead on the other and dialed her number.

She picked up on the fourth ring with a "Is the blondie reacting again? My phone shows she's fine."

Keigo sighed and checked his phone anyway: 0.5. "No... no, she's fine."

"Then what's up?"

With one last look to the head leaning on his shoulder he spoke, "We have another problem. This one's slightly bigger though - " he almost tripped on his foot as he entered an alleyway as a shortcut to his home.

"In every possible way." Keigo added.

* * *

><p>Mizuho threw an empty wine bottle at Keigo's head.<p>

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" she screamed.

He barely dodged but ended up falling on the sofa in a tangle of limbs and blood with Number Six on top of him. Keigo huffed and pushed the hollow aside.

"I swear I didn't do anything!" he exclaimed after getting up from the sofa and walking towards her.

"_That_ doesn't look like anything to me!" his sister pointed at the still unconscious (thank _God_) rockstar hollow, face down on the cushions, blood soaking the whole thing and its hollow whole vastly prominent for Mizuho to see.

Keigo put his bloody hands up to chest-level but stopped moving as soon as he realised the red all over him.

"I - I can explai-"

"Explain WHAT?" she yelled again. This time aiming their mother's favourite vase at him. He ducked just in time and let her stalk towards him and drag him to the wall where she pinned him up and slapped the back of his head ("Ow").

"WHAT IS WITH YOU AND PICKING UP STRAYS? _WHAT._" Mizuho spat. Keigo scrunched his nose.

"Okay, first of all, the first stray was _brought_ to me-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP."

"Okay," Keigo cowered. His sister's eyes blazed in anger and Keigo was sure she was going to end him. Painfully. Which was quite funny considering there were two, extremely powerful supernatural beings in his house but the one he was afraid of was a mere human nineteen-year old.

Mizuho narrowed her eyes and took a small step back, just enough room for her brother to breathe but not to move. She put her hands on her hips and grit her teeth in frustration, trying not to scoop Keigo's eyes out with the lone butter knife on the coffee table that she could see so very clearly... it was almost damn tempting that it took all of the girl's power to keep her hands on her waist.

She tried to regulate her breathing, the throbbing vein on her forehead still prominent as Keigo let out a huff of breath. He slowly crept out of the corner while she remained stagnant and put a good ten meter distance between them (even though he knew she'd easily be able to overcome that if he pissed her off anymore), grabbing one of the blood-drenched pillows from under the knocked-up hollow and using it as a pitiful shield.

When Mizuho opened her eyes, she slowly turned her head to face the boy and forced a sigh, making it sound like a shudder. "How?" she asked defeated.

"Um..." Keigo gulped, drawing in his own breath. It was then he realised how very exhausted he was, expending all of his physical and mental strength to carry another monster into their simple three bedroom apartment. "I... When Mizuiro and I were coming back from school, we suddenly sensed this really high spiritual pressure out - out of nowhere - " Keigo put the pillow back down when he decided that Mizuho was less likely to impale him with the knife he saw her eyeing and rubbed his face tiredly, " - like... just suddenly and it was really, really strong. Never felt it before - didn't even feel familiar so I figured it was one of the Big Bad ya know?"

Suddenly, Mizuho groaned and leaned heavily against the wall. "_Why_ did you follow it?" The emphasis on 'Why' made it quite obvious that his sister, too, was at wit's end with the whole fiasco.

"I had to!" Keigo reasoned, "Like, it immediately vanished right? It was only there for five - ten seconds tops. And I thought that Afro-san might have taken care of it," he explained, ignoring his sister's 'Who the hell is Afro-san?' and continued, "But then I figured that soul reapers patrolling Karakura suck ass and they won't be able to defeat that powerful a hollow. So I tried looking for the reiatsu again and realised that the hollow was still there. Figured Afro too thought some other shinigami offed it or something..."

"So you decided to, what, play hero?"

"I thought that this one too would you know, wanna eat the extremely convenient vegetable spirit bait in my room. And I found that guy - " he pointed his thumb that Jaw-Breaker, " - planted on the floor. If I didn't know better, I would've thought Planking was back in fashion."

"Oh, my God. Oh, my _God!_" the older almost cried, burying her face into her hands and Keigo felt awful for putting his sister through so much trauma. A part of his brain practically begged Keigo to take the body back into the warehouse and just leave it there, but before that plan could formulate into anything further, Mizuho spoke:

"Is he one of the high-level douchenozzles that... uh... um - " she furrowed her brows, trying to remember something, " - er - attacked Kurosaki and kidnapped that red-head two years ago? What're they called?"

"Arrancars?"

"Yeah... that. Is he?"

Keigo bit his lip. Oh, God. He really, really didn't want to make this any worse for Mizuho but lying was pointless when the evidence was so blatantly hibernating on their couch. Instead he went with a meek "Sorry."

"Damn it!" Mizuho shrunk herself into the wall. She looked to small from there that it tore Keigo's heart. He wanted to punch something so bad. Having an unconscious super-villain who almost killed his friend didn't exactly subdue that urge. "That makes two of the most dangerous, wanted... things in our house practically zombiefied into... into... ugh!"

"I'm sorry, I could take him bac-"

"No! No, no, no, no, no. You're not doing that." came Mizuho's vehement, yet muffled reply from under her arm. She lifted her head and walked towards the couch, making a face at the mess. "You barely got out of there alive, if you leave now... I - I don't even want to know what'll happen to you. Can you still sense his reiatsu?" she inquired, trying to turn the espada on his back.

"It's practically oozing - but pathetically." Keigo replied, "You know, like a worm covered in salt..."

"Ugh, could've just said yes, you idiot." just as Mizuho turned the body, Keigo realised that his wound was open. And leaking.

"No, wait!"

"Son of a-" Mizuho covered her mouth and choked. Keigo's school jacket slipped. Blue-Hair-And-Badass-Tattoo's entire torso was ripped to reveal blood and bone. Keigo gasped in horror. More stitches seemed to have opened on his way back home baring the esapada's entire front with blotches of every gruesome shade of red the brunette could imagine. Neither could make out any organs, but the outer area - still intact with what little skin was left - was swollen into a sick yellow. For the second time in a week, Asano Keigo had to use all his will power to not puke and distract himself by singing Back In Black in his head.

"That's disgusting," the younger croaked. His sister had her face turned away from the sight, eyes shut tight and she seemed to be murmuring out a stream of curses that - if he wasn't so distracted by the utter stench and visual of the almost rotting arrancar - would have made Keigo's ears hot. The latter stumbled out of his place and grabbed the stained jacket, covering Six's stomach. "We need to fix it."

Mizuho flinched, "_You_ need to fix it. I'm not going anywhere near that thing."

"Well, news flash my dearest, I don't know how to fucking stitch!"

"Then that's not my problem!"

"Like hell it isn't! Didn't you take AP Biology two years ago? I'm practically failing class."

"Again, Keigo, not my fucking problem. You brought the alien home, you E.T your way out of it!"

Keigo whined then, his head throbbing and his forehead broke out in cold sweat. Fantastic. "Please," he begged. " - you helped clean the lady, please just help me this time."

"I can't!" she snapped. "Don't you get it? I could clean blondie because I didn't need to see all of her to wrap her up in bandages!"

"What's that supposed to mean? You_ still_ can't see them properly?" Keigo didn't mean to sound accusatory, but Mizuho felt offended.

"No I cannot." she replied indignantly. "They're still... blurry. Translucent. If I even get a needle close to this one, things could go horribly wrong..." a sigh, " - if I could, Keigo... I would at least try but I can't _see._"

Keigo's head fell back, body simultaneously giving up the will to stand as he knelt beside the body and dropped his head down. Mizuho heard a defeated 'this is so not happening' and a growl before Keigo inhaled deeply and nodded.

"Okay... okay, okay. Get a needle and thread and keep in on the table there," he pointed at the coffee table, "I'm gonna go see if the hospital that is my bedroom has an anesthetic anyway. Madarame and Ayasegawa must've dumped it in one of those drawers." with that Asano Keigo lifted himself off the floor and hurried to his room.

Upon entering, he was met with silence. Keigo's gaze curiously wandered to the patient on his bed and he found himself sighing in relief at the somewhat peaceful state she was in. She looked so fragile, so delicate, Keigo wondered how such beauty could go against Ichigo's people like that. His eyes landed on the remnants of her hollow bone on her left wrist, the angled, white squares trailing from the thorax down to her chest and the her chipping right leg. He knew that a lot more was under the pale yellow blanket she was covered in - he had seen them - and shuddered. The lady on his bed looked almost... peaceful.

Quite unlike the hot mess of blood, guts and blue out in the living room.

Snapping back to reality, Keigo immediately rushed to the many drawers the large, metal cabinet had and opened each one of them. None of them looked moderately like what a numbness liquid would, which was saying something considering almost every tube consisted of transparent fluids - some with questionable suspensions of equally questionable colours and it made the teenager cringe even thinking about it.

By the time he reached the final drawer, Keigo had given up on finding something that even moderately resembled any sort of morphine but each container or test-tube had labels in a language the boy had never seen. It felt like some kind of sick joke that the shinigami played on him when he let Ikkaku and Yumichika in on that damned Monday morning.

_Monday, of all days._

_Now is not the time, Keigo!_

There was nothing, _nothing_ that the brunette thought he could use on the arrancar outside to subside any pain. Obviously, there were pain-killer tablets in his personal medical kit, but those were for humans, and Keigo wasn't going to risk pushing a bunch of capsules down _that_ dude's throat which his body may or may not accept.

And while Keigo did think of just sewing Black-And-Blue shut without any tranquilizers, he knew that a man in pain was highly unstable. And he didn't want to be killed by _mistake_ while practicing his stitching lessons from third grade on a fully accomplished, small-fry-hollow eating, Karakura-Town-invading _Espada_ who probably killed for a living.

He needed to think of something. Something in the instructions those two loons in black robes gave him (in a hurry, might he add, so Keigo basically has no idea what he's been doing except refilling and replacing stuff into Number Three blindly).

_Blindly._

Wait a minute.

Every time, just before Keigo replaced her bandages or refilled her tubes, Mizuho and he would inject something in her forearm. Exactly 20 CC of something and had to wait just about a minute before carrying out their usual procedures.

Of course!

That was their anesthetic.

Keigo stumbled back up and next to the bedside table where they kept all the immediate 'medicines' and grabbed the most commonly used bottle that was still three-quarters full. He rushed back to the living room only to find his sister kneeling behind the arm rest that was closest to the arrancar's head with a bucket of cold water and cloth, and the needle(s) and thread(s) kept on the coffee table as he had instructed.

Keigo grabbed the syringe attached to the bottle and pulled out the liquid.

"How much do I start with?" he asked Mizuho urgently.

"I - I don't know. We experimented on frogs and rats... um... 20?" she answered, dipping the cloth in to the bucket.

Keigo took in a short breath, "No... I think that would be too much. What if his body stops responding? I mean, I've seen House and while I got no clue about what they're talking half the time, I know 20 mil is too much."

"Then how much?"

"Um, should I start with 10?" the younger asked skeptically, hands trembling and he measured exactly 10 CC of unnamed substance into the syringe. "Since Number Three is like in a forever state of coma so 20's probably okay. Also, I'm pretty sure she was tortured more. This guy just looked like a failed lab experiment."

"Fine! Just do it okay? It doesn't even matter 'cause he's not human. I doubt... God, hurry up, Keigo!"

"Okay! Okay," Keigo lifted the creature's arm and placed the syringe near what he could only assume was the vein. Or the hollow equivalent. He inserted exactly 10 CC into the man and placed the syringe back on the table. While Mizuho waited like they always did with the woman, Keigo pushed the thread into the needle and pulled through the other side.

"Here goes," he stated before turning to the arrancar's abdomen and lifting the skin hanging from one side, barely held on by the last few remaining stitches. Mizuho gasped and covered her mouth, trying not to throw up while Keigo stopped breathing completely. His trembling hands placed the layer back on the exposed stomach and he put the needle through it. "You gotta tell me what to do 'kay?" he asked and looked up at his sister who only nodded.

"Uh... you - uh - put it through the other side," she pointed vaguely where red and tan met. " - near the yellow stuff."

"Are you serious?" Keigo asked incredulously. "That stuff's infected!"

"Yeah well that's the only way I know how stitches work, so I'm sorry to be a fucking bother." his sister snarled.

"Okay, sorry! I'll just - " he did as he was told and shuddered when he heard... something from the pale... "Oh that's gross." he pulled out the thread from the other side.

"Right, now..." Mizuho was panting, "Now do the same thing, but with the lose skin. And then repeat. When you reach the end... use another t- thread. Got it?"

"I guess..." Keigo repeated the same process with shaking fingers, yelping every time he poked the inside of the abdomen instead of the surface.

The siblings didn't know how long passed, it could have been five minutes, or half an hour, or three... they didn't know. All either were focused on was getting their new patient patched up. When Keigo finished one side, he cut the thread and sat back down, leaning against the sofa, before picking up another thread and pulling it through.

Suddenly, the body began jerking in un-periodic jolts. It's chest heaved upwards, almost tearing up the stitches again as the pus seeped out of them in protest. Mizuho screamed and Keigo jumped away from it. The espada's back arched so high that Keigo was sure he heard something snap but immediately crawled back to the sofa when it convulsed from side to side. The pain was evident to both siblings. Keigo hurled random instructions at Mizuho, varying between 'calm down' to 'towel on his forehead, now!' and she didn't need to be told twice as he dipped the towel in cold water placed dabbed it on the hollow's face.

"I guess 10 mil isn't enough." Mizuho added, and Keigo immediately refilled the syringe another 5 CC before injecting it into Number Six, whose agitation still hadn't subsided. In fact, it got only worse. It's jaw clenched and un-clenched, the sound of bones snapping one another filled the room along with dry struggles of heaving breaths.

"What the hell do I do?" Keigo yelled when he added another 5 CC. "This isn't working!"

"I don't know! Try... I don't..." Mizuho sputtered. "Encourage him or something!"

"Are you _serious_ right now?"

"What? If he's moving so much, he's probably partially awake! Say something to him to calm him down." Another dab of cold water to the forehead that trailed down to the neck. "We don't know much about it... him... it, he's probably into compliments or encouragements!"

Keigo stared. "Does he _look_ like he's an 'inspiration' person? The guy's guts are spilling onto my carpet, I'm not gonna tell him that he's doing well!"

"I didn't mean that you fucktard! Tell him stuff that'll calm him down!"

"I don't know what'll calm him down!"

"THINK!"

Keigo thought while dodging the kick the arrancar sent his away in his delirium, hakama flying everywhere. He gave up.

"Move aside, and keep another 10 mil ready." he ordered, voice softer than before. Mizuho did. Keigo took over her spot and grasped the hollow by its shoulders. It was firm, but the brunette tried to be as gentle as possible. He grabbed the abandoned cloth and drenched it in water.

"Hey," he spoke, as softly as he could, near the arrancar's ear. It felt just as creepy as it looked, but Keigo gulped the last of his hesitance before talking again. "...listen, buddy, I know you can hear me. You probably don't want to, 'cause honestly, who would?" God he sounded lame. Another rapid jolt and the teenager let go of the shoulders momentarily before resting them back in place. He carefully dabbed the cloth across the temples. "You're going to be fine..."

From where he knelt, Keigo got a plain look at his newest guest. All angles and no curves; with sharp cheek-bones and a steel cutting jaw and thin lips that covered the partially open mouth. With eyebrows as blue as his hair and the lines on his forehead that looked like they ached. The pointed nose sporting a long, deep, scar all the way from the right to just where his hollow bone began; Keigo was stumped for a moment as to how human he looked. Much like the one on his bed, but yet different. This one was more real, more pronounced.

More _there._

Right in front of him.

_In pain._

And Keigo needed to take that pain away.

_It needs to be done._

"Inject the 10," he whispered so softly that Mizuho had to strain an ear to get it. She did as was told and moved back a little.

Keigo wiped the cloth over the arrancar for the second time and tried again. His voice surer than ever. "You'll be fine. We're just trying to help you, we won't hurt you and we won't fight you. We will save you and you are going to be okay. Alright?"

A choked whimper. Another arm flailing striking the table.

Keigo unconsciously ran his hand through the other's hair, trying to soothe him while the left one stroked stripe from its cheek to the collar bone. "You're going to be fine," he repeated. "Trust me."

And he kept repeating.

Even when the former let out a guttural growl of despair, jaw sniping in anger and more pain, Keigo kept talking. He kept saying the same damn words and his hands moved the same damn path.

Another five minutes of sounds - _screeches_ of agony and suffering the teenager didn't wan't to imagine, but had to because it was right _there_, in front of him, happening in the realest way possible. And all Keigo did was murmur encouraging words and soothing circles and finally, finally, the torture lessened, the jolts reduced to mere flinches, the shivering, the shaking, the clenched fists loosened. Keigo sighed in relief and stared at its face, trying to regulate its breathing, switching between short breath to long ones, dazed jaw clicking every once in a while. This face was better.

It's eyes flew open.

All Keigo saw was blue, _blue, **blue.**_

All he heard were growls and screams.

And everything went black.

* * *

><p>Asano Keigo woke up to the smell of brunt rubble and his sister's sobbing. She knelt beside him, coughing and crying, trying to wipe the water from her eyes and shake him awake at the same time.<p>

He coughed, coughed more and wiped bits of what felt like concrete off his eyes. He tried to sit up, groaning and struggling, and was assisted by Mizuho, who immediately embraced him as tightly as she could.

"T- Thank God, you're okay." he heard her stutter as his eyes adjusted to... wow. Okay. The hole in the wall was a new development.

"What - what happened..." he coughed again, trying to clear it from all its hoarseness.

"The thing... h-hollow... he woke up. And - and I think he _freaked?_" her voice squeaked at the end, still thick from crying, " - I don't know? And he punched you and then he g-gets up and _oh, my God,_ Keigo! He - he shot blue _lasers_ out of h-his han... hands and he - " the rest of it dissolved in a mixture of more sobs and snorts as Mizuho tried to regain her senses. She shuddered in some air and tried calming herself down. "Don't _ever_ do that again." she ended.

"Do what?" he asked.

"Try to calm a freaking wild animal, that's what! I'm so glad he only knock you out... I wouldn't know what to do if he did anything more!" Keigo shushed his sister gently, stroking her hair when he hugged him again and telling her that he's fine.

"He's gone." he said after a minute.

"Duh." came Mizuho's reply as she stood up and dusted off the lint from her jeans. She flipped her hair back and began sweeping the rubble to one side as if nothing happened.

Keigo followed suit, but said instead, "I need to go find him."

Mizuho stopped. Her jaw tightened and her brows furrowed and Uh-Oh, that was a vein on her forehead and-

THUNK!

"WAS THIS NOT ENOUGH?"

"Ow. I'm _injured._" he completed with a cough.

"And you want to go find the thing that injured you? He'll kill you!"

"And if I don't at least try to get him back I'm going to die anyway!" he retorted, voice horase yet loud and demanding. Mizuho stopped short. "We're going to be screwed by a bunch of people who even shinigami have a tough time fighting! I think I'd rather take my chances with the arrancar. At least he'll make it quick!"

Mizuho looked down and her voice broke again, "Please don't do this, Keigo."

Keigo took a step back, limping towards the door. "I have to. He couldn't have gone that far. And even if he did, I doubt he'll change his base of operations."

"The warehouse?"

The younger shrugged. "If he tells me to fuck off... I'll come back. I promise."

"Keigo-"

"Don't." with that, seventeen-year-old Asano Keigo dragged himself back to the goddamn warehouse that started all this nonsense.

* * *

><p>When he entered the shit hole, Keigo was in a more definite state of mind. Confident... not so much. After all, what were his chances against a powerful, raging espada? Hell, even if Number Six didn't have his powers, Keigo was sure to have his ass kicked anyway because <em>goddamn,<em> was the guy ripped. And angry. The teenager was pretty sure all that anger wasn't just be a hollow trait.

The arrancar's reiatsu practically leaked out of the place, and while Keigo was sure he was trying to conceal it, it wasn't strong enough for that. Or too distracted by the gaping entry into his entire front that was hardly holding his guts together with a piece of skin... just like the one that entered Keigo's line of vision when he looked straight ahead.

Right where he found the hollow, Keigo saw the figure hunched and on one knee while the other balanced a sword to the ground. The arrancar's left hand gripped his stomach and his right immediately shifted to the sword when he spotted Keigo.

The latter gulped. A few of the arrancar's hair strands covered his eyes... blue... _blue_ eyes. And he bared his teeth into a..._ Oh shit_ that's a grin.

In the past few years of interacting with the supernatural, Keigo had learned two things: a) Never hit on busty, strawberry blonde exchange students and b) when anyone with rotten-ass injuries smiles, you fucking run.

"Wanna die?" a gruff voice snapped Keigo back to reality (which really wasn't any better than what he had imagined). It was deep and unused, that much even the brunette could make out. But it still sounded taunting, challenging... sadistic. Yep, that was it. The voice was fucking sadistic and evil and holy crap Keigo was going to die. How the hell did the guy look so... _not mean_ before?

_He was unconscious, jackass._

Oh.

He honestly had no idea if that question was rhetorical (because _seriously,_) or not and if not, then was it meant to be answered? Was there even a right answer? The guy looked like he wanted the right answer. Keigo couldn't turn back now though. Even if he'd run, he was bound to get caught. The teenager decided that he'd tackle this problem like he's always done.

He'd bullshit his way out.

"No... not particular fond of it." came his answer, slightly shaky. Keigo didn't dare move a step ahead. He knew, he just _knew_ that Macho-Man here had his eyes trained on his every move. But Keigo didn't let his gaze waver either.

Much.

"Then why're ya still fuckin' here?" the grin grew wider despite how weak and strained the voice sounded. Yep, he was totally capable of impaling that really pointy sword at Keigo. The teenager gulped.

"I... uh... I wanted you to come back." he blurted and his eyes widened. There was supposed to be a word-filter during bullshitting time. The espada's grin faded slowly and his eyebrows furrowed.

_Oh fuck._

"Just 'cause you want me to," his voice turned deeper and Keigo could make out slight pants that came out of him. Despite hardly being able to stand, Number Six still looked so intimidating, so...

_Aaaanndd he's getting up. Crap, I'm screwed._

_No shit._

The arrancar was barely holding on as he stood. His knees trembled but his back remained straight. He glared at Keigo in utter distaste and a feral sort of anger, "- doesn't mean _I will._" and the next second Keigo was pinned against a pillar with the sharpest blade he had ever seen against the thin skin of his neck.

Keigo didn't dare breathe. One single move and he'd be sliced in two. It suddenly felts extremely stuffy, and Keigo realised that the hollows reiatsu was rolling off him in waves. He didn't know which one was worse though, having an espada a mere inches from his face, growling and seething in rage, or having his spirit pressure ringing a thousand bells in the Quincy kingdom so that they kill both of them.

_The latter. Easily the latter._

Keigo was about to open his mouth but Six beat him to it, "Thought you could beat me? 'Cause I'm a little worn out?" _Little? Is he serious?_ Keigo kept that thought to himself, concentrating on his face instead, which was oh, so close to him. The blueness of his eyes half mesmerizing, half scaring his wits out.

"No," the younger managed to whisper without killing himself, " - that's why I was, you know... half a yard away from you instead of... this close." Number Six held the sword even closer to his neck, forcing Keigo to tilt his head up. Keigo gulped, Six looked huge from this close.

But his reiatsu was even bigger and stronger and he needed to stop that _now._

So he just looked at the hollow in the eye and let his mouth move off its own accord. "But... there's a bigger picture here. And if you don't come, we're all gonna end up dead!"

Another growl; the sword drew blood this time and Keigo closed is eyes and flinched at the sting.

"Is that a fuckin' threat?!" the espada yelled.

"No!" Keigo yelled back. "It's not, okay? Look, I get that you're all strong and mighty and whatever it is that you guys are but you're still wounded, no matter how little it is. And I can help you!"

"You-"

"There are people out there," Keigo interrupted. It suddenly didn't matter that Blue-Hair was stronger than him, that he could be snapped into little pieces by his hands, he couldn't let the woman get captured again. Nor could he get any of his friends killed. Or enemy. "They've taken over the Soul Society and every other supernaturally oriented realm there is and they are _way too strong_ and if you kill me now, you won't _stand a chance_ against them, I swear. Your injuries are still raw and I have things that can help you heal and keep you under their radar for now." He took in a deep breath once he noted that the arrancar was listening. "There's no point going unprepared to war, and you look like the kind of guy who knows that. So don't."

"Don't trust ya."

"I'm not asking you to. When we get back I'll explain everything to you. The world is not how you left it. It's worse... and we're _losing._"

"Don't know ya," blue eyes challenged brown, the tip of the blade now beaded with ruby that, for once, was Keigo's own blood. A twisted, sick part of him was almost relieved of the refreshing change.

"And I don't know you." came a simple reply.

The pressure from Keigo's throat lightened and so did the air around them. The sword was back at its owners side, who stood tall, proud and... still bleeding from that freaking hole in the stomach.

"Grimmjow Jeagerjaques."

"Asano Keigo."

Grimmjow didn't let his guard down one bit, but the pain and discomfort was slightly more evident on his face than before. Maybe it was Keigo's less clouded mind that finally observed it, or the adrenaline rush that Grimmjow got (even they even had adrenaline) decided to fade away, Keigo didn't know. He didn't say anything about it.

"Come on," they younger began, " - we need to hurry. Think you can do that?" he meant it in a total non-offensive way. But the growl that escaped Grimmjow's throat made him raise his hands in surrender automatically. Grimmjow seemed to like that, because he immediately grinned that evil grin while grabbing the brunette by the collar.

Keigo opened his eyes to come face to face with a shocked Mizuho with a dustpan and her back to the front door-

Oh.

Hole in the wall.

Right.

"Um... not to sound rude or anything," Keigo began as Grimmjow made his way to the sofa again, "But... entries and exits through the door are very much appreciated."

"Tch."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: End of chapter 3! Okay, I understand there is a lot of detail in this chapter, but it's necessary. Trust me. The story is based on the little details that are Keigo's life while Ichigo's not there. Also, I said that there will be a deeper inspection on Keigo's personality, but since its the middle of the night here, I'll probably do that in the next chapter. Sorry for the wait and for any grammatical errors. **

**Do R&R**

**-SA**

**P.S. Yes, I am a Grimmjow/Keigo shipper and a Tia/Keigo shipper. Sort of. But I'm an everyone/Keigo shipper if you do it right so**


	5. Chapter 04

**Chapter 04: Dartmouth Genius.**

* * *

><p>"So... tell me something 'bout yourself." Keigo started as he reopened the Espada's stitches.<p>

"Che."

"Hey, I'm trying to help us out here. I won't know where to start if I don't know _you!_"

Grimmjow stretched, slow and long - resembling a cat - before he winced at the sudden pain caused by Keigo pulling the thread out of his skin. He hissed and grabbed the younger's collar, yanking him close and baring his teeth with a furrowed gaze. Keigo gulped and let go of the thread immediately.

"Okay, okay!" he raised his hands in surrender. " - scissors it is then." with that he gently held Grimmjow's wrists and got them off his shirt, moving to the kitchen to grab a pair of scissors. When he got back, he saw that Grimmjow sat up again, back hunched and clutched his abdomen, drawing all the blood out of it. "Hey!" Keigo yelled and ran towards the arrancar. "What are you doing?!"

"Gettin' all the crap outta my body." the other grunted and leaned forward shutting his eyes in pain. Keigo placed his hands on his shoulders to keep him balanced.

"What crap?!" just then, he noticed another liquid - more like plasma if you asked him - sick green and foul smelling, ooze out of the opening. Keigo gagged, "Oh, _that_ crap. That is some disgusting crap."

"No shit."

The goo trickled down the Espada's waist, staining the hakama and the sofa and it pooled beneath it, drenching the carpeted floor. Keigo cringed and wondered how he would explain this to his parents when they got back. He was fucked a hundred ways over.

After a good minute of pressing Grimmjow's organs back inside his body, the arrancar slowly eased his palm off his stomach and scrunched his face in pain. He didn't even bother to hide it this time, and Keigo thought it was progress; in its own twisted, little way.

"Is it all gone?" the teenager asked softly, trying not to disturb the panting Espada.

"Think so..." he barely whispered. "Patch it up."

"I'm gonna get the old stitches out first, using scissors. So if it hurts, tell me okay?"

Grimmjow opened an eye and raised his eyebrow. Keigo assumed that expression meant Grimmjow swearing at him for thinking he was that weak, but he ignored it because Grimmjow _was_ weak. That fact that he _didn't_ swear at him proved it.

Keigo lifted the pair of sterilized scissors and carefully cut the incisions the thread had made roughly an hour ago on Grimmjow's body. This time, he tried not to get skin in the way, nor did he accidentally poke the inside of the stomach, knowing fully well that a conscious Grimmjow was going to separate his wrists from the rest of his arm and slap him with it. It hadn't even been a full day yet and Keigo had managed to chalk up 60% of the arrancar's personality to Ichigo's. The brunette wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. When he finally cut the last of threads, Keigo got the its pieces out of the skin and exhaled heavily. He leaned back beside the edge of the sofa, head almost meeting Grimmjow's thigh before he realised what he was going and sat up straight.

"W-well..." Keigo stuttered. "That's done. I'm gonna need to... uh... tranquilize you before I star-" Grimmjow's hand shot up to Keigo's left arm and yanked him close, nails clawing into his bicep and drawing out blood. Keigo yelped and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he found himself face-to-face and extremely close to Grimmjow's glaring eyes.

"You ain't gettin' that shit _anywhere_ close to me," the bluenette growled, fangs almost scraping Keigo's skin and Keigo was pretty sure his jaw _burned_ at the touch. He was going to die.

"Yes!" the teenager squeaked and received another growl and another claw to his arm, "I mean no! I m-mean... I won't! I won't tranquilize you."

"Good," Grimmjow's mouth twisted into a full blown smirk that put the definition of sadism to shame. Keigo wondered how the arrancar managed to smile with his chest cut open but didn't dare question it for the sake of keeping his arm intact.

Speaking of, Grimmjow still hadn't let go of Keigo's arm but it's pressure had reduced considerably. He was staring the younger down with his piercing blue eyes and that goddamn grin that made Keigo's skin crawl. Last time he checked, Keigo wasn't really human-meat material. But then again, Grimmjow was a hollow and he had no idea what hollows ate. Maybe Keigo should ask-

"Um... you know I'm right here, right? I wasn't planning on helping but it's not like there's anything else I can do with the HOLE IN OUR WALL!" Mizuho's voice boomed Keigo out of his trance and he backed away from Grimmjow immediately. The latter laid back down on the sofa and placed one hand behind his head while the other swung casually on the floor. _Casually,_ as if half of his body wasn't missing.

"Nee-san! Uh... you can stitch this ti-" He was interrupted by the door bell ringing.

Both siblings froze. Keigo frantically looked at his sister and mouthed 'who is it?' to which Mizuho angrily replied an 'I don't know!'.

"The hell was that?" Grimmjow's voice rang throughout the room that causing both humans to shush him down. He growled but Keigo held him back before placing a finger on his lips to stay quiet. Mizuho headed towards the door and looked through the peep hole.

"It's the neighbor from below!" she whispered, suddenly panicking.

"Why is she here?" Keigo whispered back.

"She probably heard the explosions dumbass! A part of our apartment is literally missing! I'm pretty sure a firetruck will be here any moment!"

"Shit!" Keigo scrambled up and ran to the hole on the wall. He peered out only to find a large group of people staring back up at his apartment, some of them were kids too. He looked back at his sister and then turned to the arrancar, "Get up." He ordered and didn't wait for a reply before he began pulling Grimmjow by his shoulders.

"_The fuc-_" The rest of the Espada's swears were muffled by the younger's flailing arm that accidentally smacked his face (he can't believe he didn't dodge that!) and tried to drag Grimmjow into his room. The latter struggled, and almost succeeded if it wasn't was for Keigo's out-of-the-box thinking that made him stick his finger into Grimmjow's abdomen and watch him writhe in pain immediately.

Consequences could go to hell, Keigo thought as he pushed the Espada into his room and locked the door immediately. The reiatsu of the entire house increased and Grimmjow looked furious, like he'd rip his throat out any minute, which Keigo didn't doubt by the way, because despite reminding himself that he'd only known his guy for a couple of hours, Keigo felt like he already _knew_ him. Anger was pretty one dimensional. And since Grimmjow was always angry, it wasn't really hard to jump to _that_ conclusion.

Keigo ushered the latter to the futon on the floor, which was somewhat easily complied for someone like _Grimmjow_, and that confused him, leading Keigo to follow the other's gaze to his bed. The brunette than raised his eyebrows as realization dawned upon him.

Blondie.

Right.

The weight in the air almost completely dissipated then, for Grimmjow now knelt with his hands resting on his thighs and remained motionless, not even flinching when his eyes traveled from his _still_ unstitched stomach (Keigo cringed, but checked his pockets for the needle and thread, which he brought. Thank God for that. Keigo really wasn't keen on going back to the living room and encountering whoever the hell decided to snoop into their home with a mask of 'concern' that only hid their true intention that thirsted for gossip. Mrs. Kinomoto wasn't that good an actor as she credited herself to be) and back to the bed. His expression was something the teenager couldn't really figure out, which made him hesitate to ask him to do anything else. Grimmjow's mouth was pulled up into a thin line, his brows slightly furrowed but his jaw wasn't tight. The azure in his eyes though, told a completely different story. They were a mixture of downright confusion and shock, as if he couldn't believe something like this was possible.

"You know her?" Keigo finally broke the silence, the same time he heard an 'Oh Mizuho, I'm so glad you're okay! What happened?' from the living room. He rolled his eyes.

"Harribel." came a rather quiet reply. "Tier Harribel. Heard she ruled Hueco Mundo for a bit." Keigo guffawed. "What happened to 'er?"

"Quincies. That's all I know. Listen..." Keigo stepped closer and showed the other the needle and thread he held. "I _really_ need to patch that up. It's been exposed for way too long. Just let me..." he made a half-hearted sewing motion, hoping Grimmjow got the message.

The arrancar just rolled his eyes and leaned back to the wall, spreading his legs to meet the edge of the bed - _Wow, he's tall_ - to give Keigo some space.

Not wanting to waste another minute, Keigo finally dug out a few more antiseptics from his personal kit (screw his hollowness, they were doing things his way now) and began his work. He pulled out the first stitch, searching for a reaction but Grimmjow had his eyes closed and brows scrunched in what he could only call _slight_ discomfort. _Damn Espadas and their strength_. Keigo continued stitching, not wanting to break the silence that filled the room because it was welcomed alright. It was so fucking welcomed after the hell he went through today and it was then that the teenager realised that he was _exhausted_ beyond anything and presumed his sister might be too. He was pretty sure neither of them had anything on the arrancar he was patching up, but he could use some _sleep_ damnit.

In the background, all he heard were shallow breaths of Grimmjow, a slow whirring of some machine hooked up to Blondi- _Harribel,_ and the muffled sounds of Mrs. Kinomoto's atrociously squeaky voice from the living room, asking Mizuho is she could 'investigate' for any more damage. Keigo smiled a little when his sister firmly declined and told her that the fire brigade and cops will be coming soon anyway. He felt truly bad for Mizuho, he never meant to drag her into this mess.

Then again, Keigo realised, Mizuho was in this mess the moment Ichigo got his shinigami powers all those years ago. Just like the rest of them.

Another quarter of an hour later (something Keigo didn't realise until he felt a huff of Grimmjow's breath of his forehead), Keigo was already done with fixing the Espada's stomach and had begun cleaning the wounds around it.

_See, that wasn't so bad,_ his conscience chided and he had to agree. Grimmjow didn't threatened to maul him, or actually do so, he didn't even say anything rude or outright brash. For the past fifteen minutes, Grimmjow would have been the perfect guest if he wasn't so badly injured. But Keigo could give him a benefit of doubt for that. It made him smile.

That, Grimmjow caught. Obviously.

"What?" his sharp voice was gruff from being unused and exhaustion that he tried to hide. Keigo knew he couldn't say what was actually on his mind for Grimmjow would kill him. He may be somewhat similar to Ichigo, but at least the carrot top didn't act on his death threats. Grimmjow on the other hand...

Also, Keigo couldn't just dismiss it as a simple 'nothing', at least not to a guy with a temperament like his, because then Grimmjow would only assume something bad before killing him.

But since Keigo had been a proclaimed master-bullshitter for so long, he already had formed a reply to that. It was half true anyway.

"It's ridiculous isn't it?" he began and continued before Grimmjow could even change his expression to an even more annoyed one. "Two Espadas in my bedroom, one who I'm fixing up, the other..." he turned his head towards Harribel and sighed. It felt less and less like bullshit with every word he spoke, "the other's been in coma for the past... God knows how long. She was like this when I saw her. And there's a hole in our living room wall that I only hope insurance covered and the _most fucking annoying neighbour in the world! -_ " he made sure his voice was loud enough to reach the living room, not caring if Mrs. Kinomoto stalked into his bedroom this instant. He was too done with this crap. " is asking us questions that we have no fucking answers to because apparently '_it was a spirit from the world of the dead'_ isn't a plausible one!" Keigo was ranting now and he needed to stop. Why wasn't Grimmjow stopping him even if it was in the most painful possible way? Goddamnit, that bipolar fuck just looked at him blankly, and the teenager rambled on, "And my parents aren't at home which might be a good thing but my sister and I kind of need the most moral support we can get without having to spill secrets that aren't ours and I'm just so _tired_ for the past week and a half and I don't even know what my sister's going through because she's still new to this and she's like the only support system I have, Grimmjow! And I don't want her to get hurt and I don't give a shit about fucking Shinigami and fucking Quincies and hollows and Jesus!" Keigo exclaimed exasperatedly, raising his hands up and sighing before he closed his eyes and bowed his head.

"I... I don't even know what you're doing here. Or what _Harribel,_ there, is. Or why I'm even _trying_ because I'm not _strong_, Grimmjow. I'm not strong enough for this and I can't protect the people I care about and I'm still trying to win this long lost battle because... I don't know why anymore! I'm too weak for..." There was hardly any space between the two and Grimmjow hadn't even said anything; it was making Keigo feel antsy and fidgety but he still had one more thing to say.

"The worst part though?" he began again, looking at the Espada through hooded eyes and a self-deprecating chuckle, "Is that I'm not the one having a bad day here." He glanced at the elder's stomach and back at the patient on his bed. He closed his eyes and sat back then, not bothering to give Grimmjow a chance to speak as he began bandaging his torso securely, asking him softly to come forward every now and then to reach his back and the bluenette still didn't say a thing.

"Why aren't you tell me to shut up?" Keigo started again and mentally groaned because he was already so sick of his own voice and literally everything around him, it made his head hurt. "You sound like a guy with low tolerance for crap. Please tell me to shut up, _God,_ this is pathetic." The teenager didn't even know what was going on anymore, he just needed to sleep. And when he glanced at the clock crammed on his bedside table, it read quarter to eight already.

"Shut up."

Keigo slowly turned back to the source, only to find Grimmjow with his hand behind his head, casually leaning against the wall with one leg on chest level. He raised a judging eyebrow at the teenager and Keigo felt pathetic, but he was past the point of caring. Still, Grimmjow's words baffled him.

"W-what?"

"Shut up." He repeated but didn't look away. They stayed that way for what felt like an eternity to Keigo, but was probably only mere seconds. Finally, the brunette leaned back and huffed a breath tiredly. Suddenly, it felt as if a great load was lifted from his shoulders and it made him lightheaded. He decided he'll try to keep comprehending _exactly what happened right now,_ for tomorrow. He just wanted to sleep.

When he heard the front door of the house close and Mizuho's string of curses, Keigo smiled again, despite it coming out as a poorly hidden grimace.

Sleep. He needed sleep.

"Um... there's... a device... sort of..." he trailed off, eyes closing with each second. Suddenly, he wasn't even scared of the fact that two of the most dangerous species were in his room, one of which needed a fuckton of machines to stabilize herself while the other probably wasn't aware of the definition of stability. But he just didn't _care._ "On that table there," he pointed towards the white meter next to the clock. "...controls your spirit pressure... There's a strap behind it. Put it on and adjust the buttons to... 0.5 or below I think. It'll keep you... not detected or whatever. I don't know...

"You'll be staying her for a few days so - " a yawn, " - don't go anywhere. Need to heal... and stay here. With me. In my room I mean..." another yawn, "You need... safe..."

"Oi," Grimmjow called as Keigo was just about to close his eyes.

"...Yeah?"

"Shut up." And Keigo did.

* * *

><p>Keigo woke up to the sounds of birds chirping outside his window and a raging back ache that made him want to separate his neck from his shoulders. His head throbbed from the blood that suddenly rushed into it and the teenager groaned, voice charred from disuse while his hand flew to his scalp. The fact that his palms were still numb and all of his joints popped every now and then at the slightest movement made Keigo deduce that he did not sleep well.<p>

Still, something was better than nothing.

Nothing, just like in front of him.

Not even Grimmjow.

That made the brunette stand up immediately, his muscles protesting against the sudden movement and Keigo wanted to extract his brain from his skull due to his heaviness. But none of that mattered because he had slept without keeping an eye out for the only factor that could tip the temporary balance he had created to stay safe in Karakura. And said factor had disappeared.

Panic came to Keigo slowly, but steadily enough for him to familiarize with its arrival and he began fidgeting in his spot, realising that he was at the edge of Harribel's bed and just short of stepping on his futon, right where the more conscious Espada was meant to be.

"How am I so _stupid?_" he rasped out loud, cringing at his own voice and stumbled towards the door. He needed to inform Mizuho about the hollow's absence, or worse, Mizuho already knew and had to go find him all by herself. What if she followed him and got caught? What if she tried to talk to Grimmjow and he got mad and fired a point-blank bomb that nearly blasted half of his house? Or worse, what if Grimmjow decided to torture her instead for his own entertainment and forced Keigo to witness his sadistic ways? He clearly seemed capable of such things and that thought made the teenager's blood run cold.

He needed to hurry.

He barely made it to the living room when he heard a grunt from somewhere near the window. In spite of having only met for less than a day, Keigo could recognise that grunt anywhere, and the idea of Grimmjow not having escaped almost relieved him. The sense of relief evaporated as soon as he witnessed the hollow lounging by the rubble on the broken wall (it was then Keigo realised that there was no window there in the first place, and how easily he managed to subconsciously accept the thought left a sour taste in his mouth). Keigo shot him an incredulous look, about to open his mouth but Grimmjow beat him to it, sending a smirk and sticking his thumb towards the living room.

"You've gotta be kidding me." the teenager groaned.

"Oh, you're awake!" Mizuho called and momentarily abandoned the officer at the entrance whilst rushing towards him.

"The hell's happening?" Keigo whispered angrily the moment she was withing hearing distance. Mizuho looked startled.

"Did you honestly expect the loss of an entire side of the room to go unnoticed by the cops? We're lucky I was able to convince the firemen and neighbours not to call an ambulance _and _thereby enter your room last night." She swirled around and sent a swift "Please feel free to look around! Except the bedrooms, they're in perfect condition but really messy and _private._" with the most charming smile Keigo had ever seen his sister muster and he wouldn't have believed his eyes if he hadn't seen her use the same charm on a ridiculous duo of mooching shinigami two years prior. Behind him he heard Grimmjow snort.

"Uh... alright but-"

"_Thank you._" she didn't let the - now that Keigo found time to notice - relatively fresh-out-of-the-academy cop finish and ushered Keigo towards the damaged side of the room. "I want you to clear all the crap you have in your room, mop this side of the room and yellow tape it. And take a shower. You look like shit."

"I feel like shit." Keigo ran a hand through his hair, watching the officer head to the kitchen and turned to Grimmjow, who hadn't budged at all. His back was to the edge of the hole and his whole body balanced itself perfectly at the opening. "What's his deal? Pretty sure Clark Kent there must've found it at least a little disturbing, if not completely suspicious that a guy with a bandaged chest, blue hair and partially exhibitionist qualities." His head hurt with the amount of words that escaped his mouth, but it had been a long time since he promised himself to be more articulate in his speech rather than flail around and watch people die.

It's one of his many paranoias that he refused to give up now that he was exposed to a whole new world of non-humans.

Mizuho rolled her eyes, "He's bare. Not an ounce of spirit pressure apparently, can't detect your friend no matter how close he went to the damage. He couldn't even hear the mocking coughs Grimmjow threw his way." She looked past her brother to see sharp teeth and cruel azure eyes staring back at them in amusement. "Also, I learned, while you were asleep, that his hearing is _impeccable _so you might wanna withhold your judgment towards this clothing."

The younger flinched and turned around slowly, meeting the Espada's eyes and mouthed a meek 'good morning'. The grin faded and all he was presented by was a raised eyebrow and startling blue.

"Okay..." Keigo mumbled, "I'm gonna go and do what... what you said. Um. Take care." He told Mizuho and she scoffed. He hurried back into his room and his face scrunched up in disgust. The place was a mess; with pillows sprawled across his makeshift bed on the floor, an open medical kit, pointy surgical equipment scattered across all tables...

The only thing bearable was the unconscious body of Tier Harribel on his bed. Keigo wanted to smack his head at his fucked up priorities and preferences.

He found a large bin bag from one of the many draws among the mess and began cleaning the whole room up.

Thirty minutes later, his room looked clean, smelled clean and _felt _like it lost a ton of weight. Keigo had rearranged all Espada marked necessities onto the coffee table he snagged from outside and placed his books back onto his study table. While he was at it, he cleaned his wardrobe too and threw a chunk of clothing and other junk away. Frankly, Keigo didn't remember his room being this clean since... ever.

After that he grabbed a mop and a bucket from the laundry space and began scrubbing the floor from any remaining P.O.P and cement. When Grimmjow refused to move (Keigo didn't have to ask to know he'd be dead if he tried), the teenager simple mopped around him, keeping as much space between them as possible. Another half an hour passed while Keigo stuck tape from one wall to another at the reasonable distance from the damage, making it look much like the crime scene it is supposed to be.

He went for a shower then; a much needed contemplative wash from the 'absolute fuckton of crap we went through for the past week' - as Mizuho stated, all while trying his best to ignore the striking existence of Grimmjow Jaegerjaques in his living room. The funny thing was - Keigo thought as he turned on the knob for the hot water (and thus shrieking when it burnt his skin) - that Grimmjow so far, had done nothing threatening in the past twelve hours of being confined in a three bedroom apartment. Keigo would take time to admire his improved character analysis on anything living (or dead) at a later time, but the thing with Grimmjow was that... he _knew_ about him.

It wasn't obvious at first, definitely not back in the warehouse that he visited just yesterday, and adopted a supernatural creature. But after the whole hole-in-the-wall thing, Keigo had an idea about which one of the villains could this one be. The '6' on his back was only further confirmation to his suspicions.

After Ichigo and co. finally returned from their month long hiatus away from the normal, Tatsuki immediately demanded to know_everything _about the supernatural. Ichigo, obviously, tried to get away with more shitty excuses, but after Mizuiro and Keigo backing their classmate along with constant emotionally blackmailing jabs and a reminder that they did, in fact, encounter the guy behind this whole mess, the gang sort of gave in.

Of course, explaining was dedicated to Ishida - a task he grudgingly took, because he didn't want to relive the experiences any more than the rest of them did but since he was still the most knowledgeable, it seemed logical - who explained the concept of everything they had to defeat in_detail. _If Keigo remembers correctly, he still has some illustrations on tissue paper (and a knitted scarf) made by the Quincy at the back of his drawer. The point was, that despite Mizuiro and Tatsuki being somewhat satisfied with the explanation, Keigo was not. Due to his lack of self-preservation, he prompted, ushered and finally begged Ishida to tell them about each and every fight they had witnessed or told about.

And that was when the real stuff began. Knowing about hollows was one thing, but learning and understanding their behaviour first-hand was something else entirely. Ishida spent 5 hours telling him all the things he observed about them, from the meaning of their names to their zanpaktous' abilities, to their personality that apparently, he had chalked to the point. Keigo forgot most of it a week after that, but that was when the nightmares began.

Despite having an overview of other realms, the dreams that infiltrated Keigo's mind were simply the _idea _of what could be out there. The fear of oblivion, the pain and torture before it, the sense of loss at every freaking moment, the despair, the longing... even the roaring sounds of supposed natural catastrophes that shook Karakura at random times made more sense now. The earthquakes, the men in black robes, Don Kanonji himself - it suddenly wasn't just a joke anymore; nor was life just as easy as forming a squad of partially-gifted people to get rid of hollows. There was destruction, there was death and agony, and helplessness. There was an unconscious Tatsuki, a beaten Afro-san, the act of picking up a sword and facing the most terrorizing eyes that wore neither black nor a bone-mask... all of which made Keigo suddenly realise, in the middle of the nights he has woken up gasping for his breath, that everything was real. And they were temporary, no matter how permanent their memories might be.

An entire month after that, the teenager had seemingly gone through an existential crisis which he did his best to hide because he couldn't _fathom _how everyone managed to get back to their daily routine without freaking out in the middle of class or crying in the hallways or not leaving home at all! They probably had a different way of coping, but his friends made it look so _easy _that it made the brunette guilty he could not get over it as fast as they did - especially when he didn't even endure a tenth of their suffering. When he finally snapped, it was quite, there was no ruckus, no crying, no panic attacks, but just a stray tear that left his eye and the sudden void in his gut. He knew that if he took another step towards the edge, he would be gone forever. So with much difficulty, he took action and went to a fucking counseling company to get himself sorted.

In spite of the whole mental trauma - which made Keigo actually recall everything Ishida taught him, not to cry over, but to learn and survive this time - Keigo remembered several, supposedly legendary fights that Ichigo won throughout his journey in Huedo Mundo. One of them involved an emo guy with a bat zanpaktou, another wielding like... six swords and an arrogant bastard with anger management issues and a striking resemblance to a cat. There was also the war with the main villain that caused Ichigo to lose his powers (_Thank God_), and then this giant called Yammy.

From what the boy observed, tall, blue and angry was definitely one of Ichigo's nemesis and, the more Keigo thought about it, the more he realised that Ishida mentioned Grimmjow to be 'grievously injured' after the fight, but not dead entirely (or as dead as dead people could get). It made perfect sense to Keigo, as he scrubbed his scalp with the last dollops of lemon-grass and mint shampoo which was probably expired, that somehow, Grimmjow survived and landed on Earth to escape Hueco Mundo. Why he did it, the teenage hadn't a clue, but as long as they didn't get anymore trouble, he could handle it.

Probably.

The realisation of one of Ichigo's enemies mooching in his house for an indefinite period of time hit Keigo like a ton of bricks. He stopped just outside the bathroom door, hand paused from rubbing his hair dry and stared at the wall for a good ten seconds.

Keigo knew Grimmjow.

Keigo knew _of _Grimmjow, technically.

But Keigo _knew _Grimmjow._  
><em>

"Oh shit."

* * *

><p>"Alright... hit me with all the bad news we have right now." Mizuho looked up questioningly from the stew cooking on the stove. Keigo elaborated, "Like... what's the plan? We have a broken house, two ex-villains from purgatory and an annoying neighbor who doesn't know when to give up. How do we tackle this?"<p>

Mizuho placed the gas on simmer and lead her brother to the dining table. He sat across her and from the corner of his eye, checked up on Grimmjow, who simply kept his eyes closed and his hand behind his head, resting under the afternoon sun where the wall should have been. The brunette finally noticed the gray strap over his wrist for the reiatsu meter and fought off a smile. He turned back to his sister. "First," she began, "-the insurance guys will visit us after lunch, check the damage, see if they can do anything. Then, we'll have a bunch of guests to check up on how we're doing, including your friends and mine. I told them to come by 6 in the evening so we'll have time to make a story - " Keigo groaned at the thought of his friends visiting him. He will have to be extra careful with Grimmjow and Tier Harribel. " - and finally, Mom and Dad are coming back tonight."

"What?! _Why?" _he sat up. The last thing he wanted was for his parents to breathe over their shoulders whilst they try not to die by accidentally angering a short-tempered spirit monster. _  
><em>

"I had to call them, it would've looked too suspicious if I didn't. Besides, the insurance company and the police have done so already. I had to... pretend to cry and... stuff okay! It was uncomfortable, so you owe me," she pointed at him accusingly. Keigo held his hands up in surrender (he seemed to be doing that quite often) and nodded in defeat.

They spent the next few minutes in silence before Mizuho got up and stirred the stew once more. "Grab the plates," she called.

Keigo rummaged the cabinet for two ceramic plates when a thought interrupted him. He turned towards the Espada by the yellow tape and hesitatingly asked him, "What- do you guys eat... any... thing?" he wasn't really sure what to expect. Technically hollows are dead, and each has at least one hole in their body which may or may not interfere with their digestive system. Grimmjow's definitely did, so Keigo couldn't blame himself for asking.

The bluenette cracked open an eye, staring the teenager _down_. Keigo didn't understand how the guy made him feel so inferior when he was the one bandaged and practically lying on the floor. He gulped and hoped for the worst. Behind him, he sensed Mizuho stopped stirring and waiting for a tense moment.

"Meat," came a reply after what felt like eternity. Keigo blinked. "we eat meat. Doesn't matter what... though human flesh is_my_ favourite. Got any o' that?"

Keigo's eyes bulged open and he scrambled for an answer, but he was simply left dumb struck. When he suspected that Grimmjow wanted to eat him, he wasn't being completely serious because well - Grimmjow after all, looked just as human as Keigo and... yeah. Maybe that's what the Arrancar was trying to do! Make them feel less threatened before he pounced on them and ripped off their flesh and ate it _raw _and oh, my_ God_, Keigo couldn't believe he had been so stupid! They were all going to die now and Grimmjow would be free and wreck havoc in Karakura _again _and then the Quincies will attack, killing _everybod-_

Keigo was brought back from his daydream with a sharp jab at his side. He yelped and Mizuho dodged him and placed the stew on the table, "Woah there, tiger! Slow down, he's just joking." He gawked, how did his sister know what he'd been thinking? "You're mumbling out loud," she answered.

The teenager swiftly turned to Grimmjow, who indeed had the most shit-eating grin plastered on his face as if he_thrived_ by scaring the crap out of people - which he probably did but it wasn't worthing giving Keigo a heart-attack! It seemed as if the Espada was only interested in making Keigo's life a living hell, because from what he observed, Mizuho had absolutely no qualms about adjusting with the new guest. In fact, _she_ was hiding a smirk of her own!_  
><em>

He would have told Grimmjow to never, ever, _ever _joke like that again but he was sure that the elder wouldn't listen to him and maybe crack his skull open just to prove a point. Besides, it wasn't like they knew each other enough to request for such things. So, it baffled the teen once again that Grimmjow simply resorted to mild teasing and relaxing under the sun in their house when he could destroy the whole town for the fun of it. Judging by the lack of blood covering his bandages, Keigo was pretty sure he had healed spectacularly overnight... which gave him less and less motive to stay with them like some extended relative, so _why _was it that he hadn't touched a hair on either of their bodies since yesterday? Was it because he actually took Keigo's words in the warehouse seriously? It didn't seem likely; from what he knew, Grimmjow The Arrogant-Asshole with - _ah, _previously a single arm that apparently Orihime healed, Keigo recalled - hated rules and instructions and anything that kept him attached to something. He was like the middle school bully who would skip class and lounge at the back of the school playing with stolen Yo-Yos and eat taffy.

_It just doesn't add up_, Keigo thought. An idea suddenly popped into his head, _Is it because of Tier Harribel in a coma? Because technically, she's stronger than him and if she's in that state, he probably knows he won't last either. I mean he was pretty surprised when he saw her yesterday before I patched him up and told him how I-_

"Ah," Keigo's eyebrows raised in realisation and he focused back to reality only to find that Mizuho had ignored him and began eating while he stood frozen at the edge of the dining table staring at the Espada in a mixture of awe and horror. Grimmjow, apparently was excellent at reading people because when Keigo realised what happened last night, Grimmjow seemed to know exactly what the teenager was thinking. His grin widened and he looked at the younger with all-knowing, sharp eyes.

Keigo had _completely_ forgotten about him practically baring his soul to an _enemy. _It didn't matter that he was being a perfect visitor, in a war like this, Keigo didn't think having allies was smart. Grimmjow is still the rival, he almost killed Ichigo, after all. And no matter how mad Keigo was at the carrot-top for having this ridiculous hero-complex that compelled him to go back to that paranormal hell again, Ichigo was still Keigo's friend and he wasn't about to betray that for the sake of nursing a wounded Espada or two. He wouldn't act _hostile_, obviously, but he won't let all this... teasing... semi-acquainted nonsense get to him either.

The moment this Quincy war is over, Keigo and the Espada's will go back to being at opposite sides and, the brunette thought with a building resolve, if need be, Keigo will gladly surrender those two to the Soul Society. Be it for experimentation or execution, it didn't matter. His work was done.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, hoping that Grimmjow hadn't caught on to any of that. "Harribel," he said instead. "Um... I'm gonna go and - she needs changing." He bit his lip at how that sounded. " - of bandages! I'm going to change her _bandages_. And eat later. Yes." with that he rushed to his room again and locked the door.

Within the past two weeks, Asano Keigo had made and executed at least 15 different plans, and failed in most of them.

Now was the time to make a big, final one that will benefit him and his family in the long run. The rest be damned. If he was going to survive this, he'd do it perfectly.

Keigo pushed past the revolving chair and opened his wardrobe where he'd stash all of Ishida's little diagrams and notes on the hollow world. He needed to know more about every supernatural creature Ichigo had encountered so far and he was going to use _each and every one of them_ to his advantage to make this work. Fishing whatever he could find, Keigo scraped out the remnants of test papers and school notes from his large soft-board and pinned the pieces of tissue and loose cardboard instead.

He stood a few paces away to see what information he currently had an a something that felt both like flying and sinking settles in his very existence.

It didn't matter if he was digging his own grave, he was going to be involved in this war whether anyone liked it or not. And he was going to be that annoying thorn in the side to _everyone _like was had always done with his friends. He was going to be an eyesore and a distraction and _every single fucking Quincy _would want him dead but he would do it none the less. Because he was so _sick_ and _tired_ of this supernatural bullshit that he wanted it gone forever. And he wanted to sleep in his bed and eat his food without fear and finish high-school and get into a University and just be_ normal_. So if Keigo shook hands with the complete opposite side for a short time, he'd do it.

His friends were coming over? Fine, he'll deal with it.

Mom and Dad want to look down on their lifestyle again? Bring it on.

And if Ikkaku and Yumichika somehow find time to tell Keigo to stop getting involved, _well,_ the teenager thought, _they can go fuck themselves. _

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I am an asshole. I'm so sorry T.T Hope you liked this chapter and I promise that the next update wont take 6 months, seriously. Next chapter will have more Harribel because I'm seriously not doing her enough justice and another well... 'flashback' to Keigo's two year time out of shinigami shenanigans. R&R and let me know what I can do to improve this story.**

**-SA**


	6. Chapter 05

**Warning: Rated Mature for language and light triggering mentions. Unbeta-d, thus any and all mistakes are mine.**

**Chapter 05: Ne'er-do-wells and Insufferable Bastards.**

* * *

><p>The first thing Tier Harribel felt when she came to wasn't pain.<p>

She felt empty, as if a part of her was missing. She felt hollow - or as hollow as... a hollow could get.

She felt a void that she was damn sure wasn't there before.

But no, not pain.

At least not until she had finally, _finally _opened her eyes after a good hour of keeping them closed in an attempt to use the rest of her senses to adapt to her current surroundings before she made a noticeable move. She was relieved to learn that her tactical knowledge still seemed intact in that time, tracing every smell she could smell, every object she could feel and every voice she could hear - including the soft mumbling roughly north from her that she still couldn't make out in spite of straining her ears. _It could be helpful_, she thought distantly as her mind fell back into a hazy limbo because even doing this was tiring and all she wanted was to sleep again: back to not bothering with the rest of the world because she had been fine so far, so another nap wouldn't hurt would it?

Harribel's mind immediately jump started before that thought completely materialized because_ when_ had she ever given into something so insignificant as _sleep? _

Sleep was for the weak. Sleep was for ones who succumbed to their temptations far too easily and Harribel was anything but that. She could sleep when she died, and granted, for a brief moment she did think she'd be dead but now that she wasn't, she wouldn't waste herself into a slumber. Time could be limited, for all she knew her captors were waiting for her to wake up.

Her captors.

The force at which she distinctly remembered what they _did _to her made her stomach lurch and she had to hold her breath in order to keep the bile inside her body. Up until now, she hadn't even _known _that she could vomit, but the thought of what they did to her kingdom, what they did to _her..._

Harribel heaved suddenly, unable to keep laying still while she _knew _they were planning on doing something terrible to her. It was only a matter of time; they were going to make her wait, leave her and her kind lull into a false sense of security before they struck again. It had happened before, countless times until she was sick of herself falling into the same old trick. Every time they attacked, they took something from her. They _took and took _until there was nothing of her own left. Until she was left to rot, an empty shell with nothing worth her name.

But then, Harribel felt a dark, humorless chuckle her as she tried not to choke on air - the _pain (Hot, scalding, burning pain. Agonizing gasps and sobs because she would never give them the pleasure of watching her scream and cry, soreness everywhere when they ripped it off. It... it...) _finally catching up to her like a pack of starving wolves against a feeble, weak deer - they didn't leave her empty did they? They took and took enough of her but left her with the memories. With scars. So that she _remembered _them every time she looked at herself.

At this point, Tier Harribel wondered why Aizen didn't completely finish her off when he had the chance, because while she knew he was a manipulative bastard who she swore her loyalty to, he wasn't this cruel, this apathetic, this _eager _to make sure she suffered and suffered and...

And they were going to do it again. They will be back and they will _take again._

It did not matter that she felt - _was - _powerless. She needed to get out of here, even if it meant crawling over the edge like pathetic vermin. They were never going to have mercy on her and simply let her _die. _They will let her live, just enough. And while pride was one of her strong suits, keeping her nerves steeled when it came to dying with dignity, like a warrior, Harribel felt that wishing for a warriors death was nothing but a faraway dream now.

No, she wasn't going to wait for them to come back. While she had the chance, she would do everything she could to escape, no matter the pain. Surely, anything other form of agony would be better than this, the lesser of two evils.

So, with all her might, she tugged against her hands and _pushed. _

She could not see yet, her eyelids still too heavy but the brightness behind them made her believe that she was under some clinical lighting. And that thought sucked all the dread from the pit of her stomach and all the way to her throat.

She screamed.

And then she struggled when a pair of hands held her back down. One covering her mouth after she was restrained enough. Harribel thrashed against it, gasping and shouting and _biting _to no avail. She was far weaker than she thought. It was when she her hand managed to bang her hand against something solid that she realised that she was not chained to the wall, hanging an inch above the ground. In fact, she was not hanging at all. She was lying down on something soft and... comfortable.

When an all too familiar mumbling began, it dawned on her that the hand covering her mouth was different. It wasn't gloved, or cold or even causing her any harm. It was well below her nose for her to breathe. And it was... warm, _human_. And... something else that Harribel never thought she would be feeling for a long time. The voice was equally soft. Masculine though. And they were trying to tell her something.

Something... something that her instincts told her to listen to. She was all about strategy but intuition is where she knew the truth lied. She had ignored them once and it led her to being cut in half, ignored them twice and she was captured by those... those _despicable, filthy-_

But third time was a charm, and she was not going to ignore her own gut-feeling for the sake of some freedom. So she did as what it told and _listened._

"-aight, you're alright. You're safe now. They can't - they won't hurt y- no, go away Grimmjow! Sh-" the voice said she was safe. They won't... they won't hurt her. But she could not believe it. She _wouldn't_. It's too easy, they were lying and she was not going to fa-

"Hey, hey! Shh... I speak no lies, I promise. You're safe- but you're-... please just rest- back," the words were fuzzy around her brain again but they were, somehow, enough reassurance for her to lie back down on the...

Bed.

Last she checked, _they _didn't have beds. At least not for people they captured and tort-

A few more probes from her conscience finally made her settle down. Her mind seemed a little at ease and that was far more than Harribel had hoped for. The misty feeling behind her eyes was back again along with the buzzing in her ears. It seemed to lull her back into her coma, often stuttering in rhythm but-

The last thing Harribel felt was a sudden, familiar (_oh God, it's been so long_) pressure, spiritually - _reiatsu_, that acted as a balm to the last of her consciousness before she was out like a light.

* * *

><p>When Harribel woke up next, her thoughts were far less muddled and she could <em>actually <em>sense where she was now.

There were the sounds of chirping from somewhere... outside of her confinements. Along with - if she strained her ears enough - more murmuring. But there was more than one voice this time. A _lot _more... it hurt... there were too many voices and it hu-

It was _hot. _Her prison... her cell wasn't this hot. No - it was rather normal for beings who tortured for fun - but there was always a kind of chill that constantly raked up and down her spine - especially when she could hear _them _coming closer. She could hear the metal - cold, sharp devices that they carried with them to use it on her...

But here? It was warm. Too warm. Almost unbearably stuffy. Harribel was sure she was sweating (again, didn't know she could do that) and she wanted _out _of these covers.

The covers were soft though, and comfortable. And tucked in far too tight - if only she could get her hands out- yes, that's it. Slowly, _carefully. _She had to make sure her movement didn't affect her injuries - ones she knew were _everywhere _but... she couldn't quite place them right now. There was pain, but it was constant, no burning spikes of distress on any specific points on her body that involved forcing her throat to seize up to clamp down the sounds of anguish. She was already feeling better.

Finally digging out her hands from the comforters, Harribel promptly remembered the small conversation she had with the strange human (_human!) _before - she was safe... well, safer. She must have been rescued - although that seemed unlikely, it wasn't completely impossible. She distinctly remembered eavesdropping over two of _them _talking outside her cell about an infiltration and black robes but she could not ponder too much over it because they entered her cell and-

No.

_No. _She could not bring herself to think about that.

Harribel rubbed her freed hands over her face gently, hissing when one of her fingers brushed her temple but otherwise there was nothing wrong. Her eyes were still closed, too heavy, but Harribel needed to open them. She needed assurance that this wasn't another bluff, no matter what her judgment about the place told her.

Slowly dabbing the pads of her thumbs over her eyelids, she opened them, one at a time at an almost glacial pace.

They adjusted to the light - that, apparently (and thankfully) wasn't too bright. She blinked once - twice - before the ceiling came into focus.

It was plain, white - and in spite of her previous wariness about being in a laboratory, it was bland. The lights weren't switched on - which explained why it was rather gloomy but... it didn't hurt. Barely anything hurt anymore.

Gosh, she doesn't remember the last time she felt like this.

The walls were off-white, nothing particularly fancy save for the random pieces of papers stuck on some parts. A wardrobe on her right, side tables...

There was a table in front of the bed she lied in... it was messy. Not pristine white like the ones she was used to, this one was wooden and worn around the edges. There was a chair placed haphazardly in front of it and the whole area faced a window. The glass was drawn but the curtains were at the side. Harribel could see the sky and it wasn't blue - like she remembered from her previous trips to Karakura... the sky was... different.

Colourful.

There was navy the further it got, some orange - one she didn't recognize - it was unlike that Kurosaki's hair... then it was a little yellow. Darker than her own tresses but it made the sky look... nice. There were clouds too, but they weren't white. They were gray... just around the edges from the window, moving slowly...

Harribel had never seen something like that before.

It only confirmed the fact that she was no longer in _their _custody. _They _wore nothing but white. Much like Aizen.

The thought of comparing her own kind to theirs made her a little more sick to the stomach.

Just as she pushed the thought away and decided that enough observation was done - she needed to make a move now - the door burst open and in came two figures.

One of them was rather short - long brown hair, pale-ish skin, but her stance was strong and sharp - much like her eyes. She looked like she knew what she was doing, which Harribel thought was more than she could say for herself...

The other - dear Lord - the other guy was certainly _not _human. She knew because she fought beside him. And he looked like he had not changed one bit.

"'Bout fuckin' time. Didn't peg ya for the beauty sleep kind."

Nope, not in the slightest.

"Here, have some water," the human passed her a glass with a straw in it just as she had opened her mouth. She looked at it questioningly. "Your throat must be parched. He's right -" she gestured to Grimmjow, " - you've been asleep for a while."

Harribel took a tentative sip, her dry lips cracking as she hollowed her mouth, and immediately made a gratifying sound that she hadn't expected to come out. The water was cool and smooth down her throat, flowing lightly against her torso and settling in her stomach. It was the most satisfying thing she had done in a while. When she looked back up, the human girl was busy searching for any signs of distress, looking non-threatening but efficient. She moved to her right, and clicked on something above the bed and something - her own reiatsu - seemed to have been put at ease.

Harribel wanted to question it but the shit-eating grin on Grimmjow's face as he watched her drink the water made her falter. The bastard was smug as ever. She narrowed her eyes at him - or at least tried to, but hissed as her lids contracted... still too painful.

She took another sip, while gathering her thoughts, before she spoke.

"What are _you_ doing here?" her voice only cracked a little so Harribel counted it as a win.

The grin on Grimmjow's face widened as he leaned casually against the wall. How he yet managed to look so infuriating, she never would know.

"Thought y'enjoyed my company," he drawled. Even though it took a lot of strength, Harribel responded with a glare. The sound of throat-clearing interrupted both of them. Harribel looked at the girl now glancing between them with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Think of this as a safe-house. You were brought here by two shinigami-" Harribel swore she sounded wistful for a moment, " -but that was almost two weeks ago. Grimmjow got here yesterday. So as long as neither of you cause trouble, you remain out of it." she ended with a small, winning smile that made Harribel wonder if this was the first time the human was dealing with this. "My name is Mizuho, by the way."

Mizuho. That didn't sound too bad. It fit her, thought the Espada. But she wasn't here before...

"There was someone else," Harribel said, "Before... I woke up and it wasn't... any of you." she vaguely remembered said someone _ordering_ Grimmjow to stay back but nothing other than the fact that- "A boy."

Grimmjow snorted (Harribel wished she was stronger just so that she could sock him in the head) while realization dawned on the human- Mizuho.

"That's my brother, Keigo." she said. "Do you wanna meet him? He's outside, getting all antsy - that's why he sent me in. Apparently I'm better at the whole dealing with supernatural shit even know this is literally my first rodeo." she huffed, rolling her eyes but her tone was... fond.

Harribel remembered that emotion. She used to feel it for her own fraccion.

Just the thought of them made something in her chest _ache._

"I- yes. I'd like to see him." with that, Harribel looked away from the standing duo, but not before catching a nod from Mizuho and the look she gave Grimmjow, like some sort of warning before leaving to which he simply bared his teeth and nothing else. That was new. If it were anyone from a lower rank of Numeros who even glanced at the Sexta in the eye, they'd have their head blasted off, but here was a mere human who was sizing him up with skepticism and caution a mile wide and all he did was smile some more.

It made Harribel wonder exactly what kind of humans these were.

Another figure - younger, a little tanned with flailing arms and teeth worrying his lower lip - entered the room and gave her a tentative smile that looked more like a grimace. He scrunched his nose up in a way that made him look a lot more like his sister. Their mannerisms were entirely different, the girl was confident and took everything in stride while this one... he was hesitant, like a prey entering a den of predators, which - knowing Grimmjow, wasn't exactly an inaccurate deduction - but Harribel always assessed the situation before attacking, if she ever did in the first place. And knowing how weak she was right now (because she _remembered _a human easily pinning her down on the bed from before), it was even more unlikely.

Still, him being cautious was probably a smart move.

He walked towards the bed before standing at a distance that seemed more tactical than Harribel could give him credit for. Just close enough for a conversation but far enough and right in line of the entrance in case he had to bolt.

"I - I... uh..." he stuttered, causing Grimmjow to bark a laugh. The kid looked like he wanted to say something to the latter (possibly something insulting by the look on his face) but thought against it (again, good move) before turning back to her. "I'm Keigo... and uh... well... you- I-"

"Were you in the room when I woke up before?" she interrupted, if only to help the poor soul start a conversation. The look she got back would have been extremely amusing if she wasn't dead tired and apparently, hurting all over. Keigo's jaw almost touched the floor and a twitch - that seemed to be some kind of tell - made it to his left cheekbone.

He clasped his mouth shut the moment he realized what he was doing and leaned further from both of them.

"Um... I- Depends? Are you going to strangle me if I said yes?" he said instead.

Harribel genuinely didn't know how he did it, but Grimmjow's mouth had stretched even more all the way to his ears and simply looking at his grin made her own jaw twitch. She had seen the Espada amused on many occasions - some more questionable than others - but they were always veiled with hard eyes and cruel intentions. Now though, his amusement held absolutely _no _malice. At least not that she knew of, and she knew enough of Grimmjow. In fact, his face was morphed into pure amusement and... _sparkling delight._ She was sure that was it. He reacted as if he couldn't _believe _that this conversation was happening with the human still standing - _alive -_ and for once... in the history of the Sexta's existence, he was completely satisfied just... watching a scene unravel instead of mindlessly butting in.

What was so special about this kid?

Instead of pondering too much upon that question (it was already taking a toll on her head), Harribel decided to reply. "No, I won't hurt you."

"Good..." the kid sighed before shutting his mouth in realization and correcting himself and saying, "I mean- yes. It was me who um..." he vaguely gestured something that resembled a hand pushing something down... but just looked like he was flailing even more.

Harribel turned to Grimmjow, who's smile had reduced but still lingered (since _when?) _and he shot her a look, a mixture between arrogance and understanding, saying '_told you', _like it was supposed to be an inside joke she didn't get. All of those expressions on the bluenette's face seemed to foreign to her that she wondered if she was still asleep.

He had changed after all.

_And only after a day? Didn't he come here yesterday? _

She shook her head before wincing as the world began spinning around her. Keigo, seemingly forgetting all wariness, was with her in no time, hands hovering over her shoulders. "May I?" he asked, like her answer _mattered_ and Harribel knew... she just _knew _that she was in good hands. He won't hurt her no matter how weak she was. She nodded affirmatively and before she knew it, familiar hands were gently holding her neck and tucking her back into the bed, snuggling her in covers.

"Call us when you need us okay?" he spoke softly, "We'll be right here."

Harribel hoped she had given a small sound of acknowledgement before her eyes closed, because the exhaustion finally caught up with her. She was numb now, the buzzing in her ears more soothing than a sound of alarm and her eyelids still heavy but not dead-weight. She might assess their conversations later, if she woke- _when _she woke up...

She was safe now...

And if the last conscious in Harribel's mind was that she was getting some _sleep,_ well, it didn't protest.

* * *

><p>Keigo had spent the entire afternoon shut in his room, subconsciously checking the state of their patient while studying everything they had on the supernatural. It had been two hours since he had made his "Soul Board" (a murder board version but for essentially dead people and asshole Robin Hoods who apparently stole <em>energy<em> from nature to kill said... dead people? Keigo was never going to get used to this) over his desk. His soft board would actually fall off if he decided to stuff more information there so Keigo had to resort to walls. Even then he thought he's run out of space.

How he'd explain this to his friends and parents, he did not know, but the teenager decided to save his brain from bursting and going about this one step at a time.

So far, he had learned that, while every shinigami had a sword called the zanpaktou which was some kind of materialization of their soul, hollows - or rather - arrancars (_Vasto Lorde - _he corrected himself) had swords of their own with equally unique powers. While shinigami had a shikai and a bankai (aka - pokemon evolution: Squirtle, Wartortle, Blastoise), Vasto Lorde also had a release form called the Resurrecion.

Most of the time, both zanpaktou took the form of an animal - the arrancars' more so than the shinigami's - which is how Keigo learned that Grimmjow was basically a cat (_Panter, _if you wanted to throw a bitch fit and be specific *cough* okay Grimmjow *cough*), Ulqui- watever - was just that. A bat. This sick pink-haired psycho who called himself a scientist was some sort of a sex-butterfly - which - gross. There was also the praying mantis, the sea urchin and two skull heads but... apparently no one gave a shit about them so Keigo moved on.

Oh, not to mention the _huge - _I mean - _gigantic - _Espada No. 0. Who was a fucking Kaiju thanks Aizen. Because everything else was _so boring _you just needed some Godzilla-sized fun, which, honestly, _absolutely zero shinigami _had seen coming.

"Surprise, motherfucker." Keigo had snorted.

Basically, by the time it was 3 pm, Keigo knew mostly everything Ichigo's friends did about the Soul Society, Shinigami and Hollows. But Quincies?

Nil.

Nada.

Zilch.

Except for the fact that Uryū was supposed to be the last of his kind. His grandfather was Boss-Level Quincy, his father gave no craps about the family business and decided to run a hospital (which is decidedly helping more people than what Keigo thinks Ichigo and his rag-tag team are doing, if he's being honest with himself), but Uryū learned how to harvest his powers all by himself after grand-papa Quincy died.

He also knew that while Shinigami and Hollows are simply two sides of a coin, parallel in every way, Quincies were another currency all together. One with bullshit economic value until recently. Quincy weren't souls - or at least they would harness their powers even in human form - something Ikkaku and Yumichika _couldn't _do. But Sado and Orihime definitely could - but they were a different species.

That was all he knew about them - and apparently, so did everyone else who wasn't a cryptic, disapproving dad with too much money on his hand and a son he couldn't control.

(A son who also had his arm ripped off by Ichigo in Hollow-Form because that was a thing before, but Keigo refuses to think about that right now in case he puked.)

So, with the sudden influx of Quincies in what Keigo could only guess, the Soul Society _and _to some extent, Hueco Mundo, the brunette really has no clue about his plan of attack. Not to mention the fact that Ichigo got his powers back _again _and left them with the rest of the gang to the lion's den itself.

He didn't even realise how hard he was thinking until his phone buzzed next to him, displaying the reiatsu-meter on the screen (yay for upgrades!) showing a level _way higher _that what it was supposed to be. When he turned around, Tier Harribel was having a seizure and Keigo felt his own pulse sky rocket because _oh shit what was he supposed to do?_

She was never this responsive previously which meant that she was waking up. Keigo sprang out of his chair and onto her side immediately, not sure if he was supposed to let her wake up or hold her down. His decision was made for him when her hand flew to the desk, nearly knocking off the lamp and sharp medical instruments.

Keigo released a last huff of breath and held both of her hands, as gently as possible, to her side. He tried to cover up his surprise at how fragile she was by trying to appear harmless. A difficult feat, because she had struggled like her life depended on it, making him once again question what she had to go through before she was rescued. His mind wandered to places he _really _didn't need to be right now, and he pulled himself back to reality, where Harribel was still trying to get free.

Keigo closed his eyes and sighed.

It worked before.

"Hey, hey! It's okay, it's alright. You're alright. You're safe now. They can't - no... they _won't_ hurt you I promise," he chanted just as another figure barged into his room.

"The fuck's goin' on 'ere?" Grimmjow snarled, eyes wild, searching before they landed on Keigo holding a fighting Harribel. Keigo suddenly felt fear as to what he might do, but when he saw Grimmjow's hand resting on the hilt of his sword, that fear suddenly turned into irrational anger.

"Get out." he gritted his teeth, voice an octave lower. Grimmjow took a step forward, eyes challenging. "No, go away Grimmjow! No one needs to die today!"

Grimmjow growled and Keigo felt a vein pop on his forehead. He wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose to ease the irritation away but his hands were occupied. "What is with you angry-young types! We're trying to help her, not squish her under your ridiculous spirit pressure! Lower it!" he demanded and turned back to Harribel, "Shh, hush, you're fine - I speak no lies... you're safe now... oh God, but you're- you're hurt but we'll take care of you okay? I promise. Just rest back... that's it... good- you're doing great-" Keigo sighed in relief when Harribel's grappling finally subsided and she was out like a light. The reiatsu in the room reduced enough for breathing room but there were still some spikes of agitation.

Keigo realised they were Grimmjow's spikes of agitation and they were directed at _him._

_Shit._

Keigo is known to handle stress less gracefully than most people - often getting him into trouble - but mouthing off to an IDE-channeling killing machine? That was a whole new level, for anyone who wasn't Kurosaki Ichigo. And Ichigo has powers. So it was safe to conclude that Keigo was, by all means, very much screwed.

It wasn't even a second after Keigo exited the room that he was hurled by a fistful of blue and slammed into the wall next to it. Still, he was relieved to see that Grimmjow only resorted to threatening so far and not actually blowing off the entire city - although he could not say the same for his head because _ow, that hurt. _

_"Who d'ya think y'are?"_ It was framed as a question but Keigo knew by his tone that Grimmjow was being _anything _but curious. He was close again, personal bubble exploited in every sense of the word (well... not _every _sense, but Keigo didn't ponder upon that because - hello, life and death situation here?).

"I- I... didn't m-mean it." he stammered out because while he was pissed at Grimmjow's... _Ichigo-ness, _he was still shit scared for his life. Good thing Mizuho was out for a study group. "Y-you know I didn't." with that, he looked the Espada in the eye because damn it he needed a break from this mess.

Much to Keigo's surprise (it hadn't even been 24 hours yet and Grimmjow had been doing that a lot already), the arrancar let go of his shirt with nothing but a twitch of his nose before stalking back to his window-hole-turned-sanctuary.

Keigo slid down to the carpeted floor, closing his eyes. Just then the front door opened and Mizuho entered carrying her school bag and a bag of groceries. She took one look at them and raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, what the hell happened?"

Keigo groaned, he did not sign up for this drama - wanting to be the center of attention was so _fifteen. _Now that he knew what it felt like to be under constant scrutiny (read: being beat up by all kinds of thugs who are secretly after Ichigo), he realised that staying under the radar is the way to life - literally.

"Nothing..." Keigo mumbled, "Harribel woke up for a bit and thrashed around. He came into the room. I snapped at him."

Mizuho blinked, "Harribel _woke up_? And then what? You _snapped _at _him?" _she pointed at the brooding figure by the wall, "How are you even _alive?_ No- better yet- how do you manage to get yourself in _so much shit_ when I'm not even around? Is this some kind of reverse telepathy thing; where you only fuck around when I can't pull your ass back to earth? And you-" she pointed at Grimmjow who glared at her. Keigo gulped. "-not that complaining for not dismantling my brother's limbs but frankly, why didn't you? I mean normal humans have to fight the urge to snap his neck on a daily basis but you... I'm actually impressed - no really - not even being sarcastic here, I am."

"Ugh." was all the reply she got, and that too from her exasperated brother. "Can we not right now? The lady-hollow woke up and... like I don't even know how this whole PTSD works-" at that, Mizuho snorted and Keigo threw her a dirty look. Grimmjow observed the duo silently, "-_but, _even I can tell she's gone through some dark shit with the Quincies and - oh uh. Oh." he stopped when his eyes widened with realization. Harribel knew about the Quincies.

_Harribel knew about the Quincies. _

"Oh? What do you mean by _oh? _What is oh?" Mizuho snarled, eyes narrowing.

The younger heaved a breath and ushered her to sit down and began explaining the both of them (Grimmjow seemed to have lost interest but his ears twitched every now and then. He was _listening.) _about what he'd been doing with the Soul Board in his room while she was out.

"So... what you're saying is that you've got nothing on the guys who are currently the Big Bad in this shitshow, but _she _does?" Keigo nodded.

Grimmjow tsk-ed and rolled his eyes, "So fuckin' _ask _'er."

(He had already put in his two cents (again, quite a surprise to see him contributing and playing well with others) on what he knew about Quincy, which was, albeit a little more that Keigo originally had but not entirely much.)

The siblings turned to each other, seemingly having a telepathic argument with their eyes. It made Grimmjow want to choke them both until they quit it. Keigo sighed in a way the Espada could guess he lost and turned to him.

"It's... not that easy. When someone - during war somet - _ugh._" He paused before continuing, "Harribel was tortured," he said instead, "If you didn't know it before, you kind of could guess with the way she acted back then," he pointed to his room, "The thing is... she won't be much use to us if she doesn't heal not just physically - which I think she also needs help with - but mentally... being a prisoner fucks you up in the head s-so sometimes you- tend to react negatively when something or the other triggers those memories... you can't just go in there all blazin' guns when she has another panic attack. Gotta be patient with them." Keigo really hoped Grimmjow understood. He wasn't sure if hollows were receptive to mental trauma, but what he witnessed back in his room definitely shed some light to it.

"That's weak," Grimmjow spat, "Humans are weak... and pathetic. She don't need to be treated like some delicate flower, tha's bullshit." With that, he got up and stalked towards Keigo's bedroom.

"Wh-what are you doing!?"

Grimmjow looked sideways, "She's up," and opened the door...

To say that the next hour was tense and exactly the opposite of what Keigo wanted would be an understatement. He had forced Mizuho to visit blonde woman with Grimmjow because he need time to collect himself. He was called in not long after, and decided that he could not stay in there for any longer than five minutes. Which is exactly what happened: he stumbled, talked, stumbled some more and almost snapped at the blue haired Espada again, but managed to stay quiet and put Harribel back to rest.

Then his sister began planning for their six o'clock meet-n-greet with both of their friends. They decided that Grimmjow needed to hide in Keigo's room now titled Out Of Limits with Harribel because Tatsuki and Mizuiro would take less than a second to figure out the presence of an extremely powerful arrancar in his house.

"The hell I'm hidin'" Grimmjow towered over him, arms folded over his (very impressive) chest, planted on the spot.

"Please?" Keigo was really not above begging but a thought occurred to him, "I'll owe you if you do! You look like a guy who enjoyed being owed... Um." That... did not come out right, but when Grimmjow huffed, Keigo figured he got the gist of it.

"There ain't nothin' I'd want from you, _human." _Apparently Grimmjow was not above being petty and stressing Keigo's conservation status.

"You'd be surprised," Keigo answered matter-of-factly. "I can be very efficient when I want to be... I promise just... _please. _Just for today, then I already have something thought out to let you pass unnoticed."

Keigo bit his lip as he watched Grimmjow pause for a moment - good, he was considering - before his mouth twisted into a sharp grin and his eyes gave a dangerous glint. Uh Oh. Keigo gulped.

"A'right." he drawled before casually backing into the room, eyeing Keigo throughout the process. Keigo did _not _want to know what was going on in the other's head. Which somehow reminded him...

"Take this too?" he requested and placed Grimmjow's reiatsu meter that he had thrown across the living room halfway through the day. "Not that I doubt your reiatsu repressing skills - " it was half true anyway, "But just to be on the safer side?"

"_Hell_ nah. That shit itches."

But Keigo persisted, "I literally do not mind going on my knees if that convinces you to wear this. I have no pride." He wasn't kidding when he said he'd be ready to beg.

Grimmjow's eyebrows shot up to his hairline before his mouth did something Keigo couldn't decipher - as if he was trying to control his grin - which. Okay. Grimmjow never held back, before snatching the gray strap and closed the door on Keigo's face.

Good, now that was done, all Keigo had to do was set up snacks and pretend he wasn't housing two Espadas. He turned to grab the tray from the kitchen he caught Mizuho's surprised expression.

"What?"

She opened her mouth but nothing came out. She nodded in dismissal before muttering something like, "On your knees Keigo, really?"

And that's when the implications of what Keigo said to Grimmjow dawned upon him.

* * *

><p>"Hollow." was the first thing Tatsuki said as she, Mizuiro and Chizuru entered the house. Keigo understood the latter two's appearance, but he didn't quite know why Chizuru was there. Maybe she thought she owed him from all those months ago with Aizen, without completely realizing why she was being companionable.<p>

"Why, I missed you too, Tatsuki." Keigo went in for a hug but Tatsuki flicked his forehead, "Ow! Way to greet a friend who almost died." _Again, _was left unsaid.

"What are ya'll doing out there? Come in already!" Mizuho called out from the living room. Her friends were already over, having small talk, someone got food which was set aside along with other snacks. The quartet complied and got inside, joining the rest of the people.

Keigo's eyes involuntarily drifted to the closed door to his room before he looked back at his friends and passed them a tray, "Food. Eat." he ordered.

They each took a piece of the sandwiches and sat comfortably, Keigo squished between Tatsuki and Mizuiro while Chizuru had already begun chatting up a senior.

"So," Mizuiro began after his first bite, "Was it the same one we felt yesterday?" At this, Tatsuki piped up.

"What happened yesterday?" she demanded.

"Nothing," Keigo replied and smiled at something a guy from Mizuho's class said. "We were walking home and suddenly felt this strong reiatsu. Pretty sure it was a hollow though, cause it was gone after a bit."

"Well... why didn't you tell me this?"

"Because." was all Keigo said before joining in on another conversation. Something about universities they wanted to apply to - plain boring stuff in Keigo's opinion, but sometimes he worried about that too. It didn't happen very often, but the brunette sometimes found it satisfying to stress over everyday things like college and jobs instead of the constant fear of living in a world where monsters and death gods were actually real.

His deflection of topic was not appreciated by the duo though, so they continued, "So, it was the same hollow right?" Mizuiro repeated quietly.

"Probably."

"And you are _not _concerned about this because...?"

"Because some shinigami took care of it. Hollows are apparently a common occurrence in our town." He snarked, "Besides, they feast on people with spirit pressure and I happen to be one, so better me than some innocent kid or something."

"They feast on _souls_ with spirit pressure. Not humans." Tatsuki corrected, looking pointedly at the brunette and not backing down. Keigo shrugged, posture not betraying the inward panic at his slip up.

"Maybe I'm special," he covered up.

"God, for once, I hope not." With that, Mizuiro pulled out his phone and began texting. One crisis averted.

Tatsuki, however, was made of tougher stuff than both Keigo and Mizuiro combined. She narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to the crowd. Mizuho had gone back to keep the plates in the kitchen when she called out.

"Hey Keigo, even though I didn't believe it at first sight, I'm pretty sure you had more friends than these." she motioned her head towards the three friends while her own snickered. "Why didn't they come?"

Mizuiro and Tatsuki didn't know that Mizuho was in on their Big-But-Extremely-Obvious-Secret, so the siblings had planned for the elder to act as clueless as she could about the whole situation. Seemingly confused about Ichigo And Gang's absence was not only a hot topic, but it also helped with the clueless thing.

As expected, Tatsuki immediately covered up, "Um... Kurosaki's helping his dad with the clinic cause... Orihime's got stomach poisoning." she sounded just as convincing as Keigo expected, "And Sado's been out of town for a while now. Ishida, well, to be honest he doesn't really like Keigo all that much. Plus he's also having issues with his dad." Oh if she only knew.

Mizuho raised an eyebrow before shrugging. Clueless-Sister was out of the way now.

Just then, a loud thump echoed throughout the living turned towards the source: Keigo's bedroom.

_Oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!_

"What was that?" Chizuru asked.

"Um..." Keigo flustered, "My books! They probably fell off again, the shelf's too weak, especially after the uh- earthquake. Ahaha." He sounded as sheepish as he could without having his heart burst out of his chest. What part of 'hiding' didn't Grimmjow get? "I'm gonna- I'm gonna go and... checkonitnow." he stumbled out and rushed to the door before anyone could reply.

Keigo swiftly open and shut the door before placing his back on it and whispering, "What the hell were you th-"

The sight that greeted him was an awake Harribel and a seething Grimmjow.

Oh crap, what had he done now?

Keigo was about to ask what was wrong but Grimmjow beat him to it.

"_You know Kurosaki?" _

Of course.

Of-freaking-course.

"I- Maybe?" he replied meekly.

Grimmjow growled and before he knew it, Keigo's wrist gave out a loud _crack _and _snapped _and his throat was held by _claws. _His reaction varied between choking on a scream and just choking. Keigo's other hand flew to his neck, trying to pull Grimmjow's own away for some room because he couldn't _breathe. _And he was in _pain. _Not the most painful thing he had experienced but definitely in the top ten and mostly because of the look Grimmjow was giving it. It promised something far worse than a broken wrist and that scared the crap out of him.

Thankfully, Harribel stepped in - metaphorically. "Grimmjow, stand down." she ordered, sounding firm but still tired as heck.

Said arrancar, now with a manic look in his eye, turned to face her, "_I ain't listenin' to you._"

"Grimm-"

"_Oh fuck off_," he turned back to Keigo, "_You know Kurosaki and didn't tell me?_"

Keigo struggled against Grimmjow's grip, that was now strong enough to lift him by the neck above the ground. That _hurt._ "Y-ye-." he choked.

The grip loosened a tad bit, enough for Keigo to breathe and talk and Grimmjow to listen. "I know 'im." he breathed, "Just didn't think it would be any of your business." he lied, but managed to add enough venom in those words. The iron-grip was back on his neck and Keigo had just about enough of it.

Grimmjow was _insufferable.  
><em>

"You watch that tongue of yours if you still wanna keep it in your mouth." he spoke in a low voice, just above a growl.

"Why, gotta beef with him?" Keigo snapped, "Well, get in line Jaegerjaques! I frankly don't give a fuck dude. 'Cause this isn't about you. Nothing that we are doing is just. about. you. So maybe, you could keep your shit together for _once _ so that we could all keep our heads from being impaled on spikes, until this whole Quincy fiasco is over!" he shouted.

The air was too stuffy now, he could barely breathe. He realised that it was because of the collective reiatsu of Grimmjow, Harribel and... _his own. _Somewhere in the background, Keigo heard a gasp but he was too preoccupied being _furious_ with the guy who - no matter how strong he is - was too volatile for his own sake. And when Grimmjow only stared at him after his rant was over, Keigo thought that _finally _something that gotten into that thick head of his. Maybe... maybe he'd get the fact that right now, Quincies were priority, and Ichigo wasn't. Mostly because he was _here. _

But then Grimmjow picked up Keigo entirely by the neck and flung him against the wall with such force that his body broke the surface. A couple of bricks well over his head and Keigo thought that yes, this was definitely the most painful thing he has experienced. His head swam as he watched Grimmjow stalk out of the room and into the hall. It was empty, but Mizuho was in the way, so he pushed her away, causing her to fall on the floor before he muttered an "I'm done." and disappeared into the night with the sound of deathly static in his wake.

* * *

><p><span><strong>AN:**

**And this ends chapter number... I don't even know anymore tbh. Okay, so I promised to update faster than every six months but honestly I lost inspiration for this story. Honestly, it only came back like a week ago. **

**Anywho, people might be wonder about countless continuity errors or other stuff that boggled your mind, some being:**

**1) Why isn't there enough Harribel? **  
><strong>2) Why is it so descriptive?<strong>  
><strong>3) You mentioned a shit ton of little knick-knacks about Keigo's personality change over the months in previous chapters, why aren't you focusing on them now? <strong>

**and most of all...**  
><strong>4) Why the fuck is Grimmjow so tolerant with Keigo?<strong>

**(And the fact that it's only been twenty-four hours of interaction b/w Grimm and Keigo and even less w Harribel) **

**All of them will definitely be answered in further chapters. I just wanted to get the initial drama over with so we can get on with the story. **  
><strong>Another reminder that this is not beta-d because I... don't <em>have <em>a beta which is why all errors are mine and I apologize for them.**

**So please send me feedback, even if it involved berating me to update sooner, or commenting on what _you _would like in further chapters. If it's something different and refreshing I will definitely consider it. **

**Also, I'll be changing the title and description of the story because right now it's just terrible. But it will be mentioned. **

**Until then,**

**-SA**


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